Micro chamber, emissions testing

Evaluation of VOC and SVOC emission potential of individual products and materials under indoor-related conditions and over defined timescales requires the use of climate-controlled emission testing systems, so-called emission test chambers and cells, the size of which can vary between a few cm3 and several m3, depending on the application. In Figure 5.1 the dots ( ) represent volumes of test devices reported in the literature. From this size distribution they can be classified as large scale chambers, small scale chambers, micro scale chambers and cells. The selection of the systems, the sampling preparation and the test performance all depend on the task to be performed. According to ISO, chambers and cells are defined as follows ... 

A so-called Micro Chamber (g-CTE) (see Figure 5.2) with an interior volume of approximately 45 ml has been designed by Markes Int. (Schripp et al., 2007). The X-CTE comprises six individual stainless steel cylindrical chambers (d = 4.5 cm), located in one unit. All six chambers are supplied simultaneously with the same, controlled flow of synthetic air. By reducing the chamber volume, it was intended to reduce typical emission test times but still generate meaningful emission data-i.e. results that correlate with data from conventional emissions test chambers. The g-CTE was not intended to replace standard emission test facilities. In fact it is a complementary tool intended to produce fast information about the composition and level of VOC emissions for development of new, low-emission products/materials. Micro chamber measurements have already been shown to... 

Markes (2009a) Note 69 The Micro-Chamber/Thermal Extractor - the Innovative, Rapid and Cost Effective Approach for Testing VOC Emissions from Materials, April 2009. 

M. van Bommel, B. van Elst, F. Broekens, Emission of organic acids from wooden construction materials in a small test chamber preliminary results of optimisation of the solid phase micro extraction technique, 4th Meeting of the Indoor Air Pollution Working Group, Copenhagen, 2001. 

ASTM WK proposed Standard Practice for Micro-Scale Test Chambers for Screening Vapor-Phase Organic Emissions from Materials/ Products ... 

ASTM (2008) WK22044 Proposed draff Standard Practice for Micro-scale test chambers for screening vapor-phase organic emissions from materials/ products. 

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