Fungus Testing – It’s not just done in your refrigerator

By Tom Borrelli, Compliance Engineer, NTS New Jersey

Many products that operate in warm, humid environments must be tested to withstand fungal attacks since this problem can cause a myriad of operational challenges. To varying degrees, live fungi will use wood, paper, leather, hydrocarbons, PVC, polyurethanes, certain plastics and paints, as well as other materials, as fuel for growth.

Some Types of Fungal Attacks

• Fungi can get under protective covers and change the appearance and degrade the optical capabilities of your product
• Metabolic waste products from fungus can cause corrosion or etching
• Electrical systems can develop undesirable conducting paths
• Fungus can block delicate moving parts
• Introduce internal moisture affecting system performance

At NTS Tinton Falls we have the expertise to successfully simulate the prescribed conditions for fungus testing for a wide variety of industries including: Military (DoD), Aerospace, Industrial, Commercial, Telecommunications, and many others.We can also provide post functional checks of your equipment as needed to save you time and money by not having to send personnel onsite.Although the MIL-HDBK-454 list of fungus inert materials is helpful in the design of new materiel, it has shown to be unreliable in determining the fungal susceptibility of complex materials, therefore the use of testing by analysis is discouraged. The formulation of complex materials and the possible contamination of resistant materials during manufacture is beyond the scope of analysis, and necessitates laboratory tests to verify the resistance of the assembled materials to fungal growth.See the NTS Tinton Falls location page or contact us to learn more about how we can help you address your Fungus Testing challenges