Patent ID: 8733186

Claim:
An environmental testing system, comprising: an environmental test chamber having an interior volume into which a test piece can be placed for testing, the environmental test chamber having an inlet, an outlet, and an openable door through which the interior volume can be accessed; an inlet duct in communication with the inlet; a particulate matter feed mechanism coupled to the inlet duct, the particulate matter feed mechanism including: an injector positioned within the inlet duct, the injector being constructed and arranged to inject particulate matter into the inlet duct with a velocity that at least substantially matches the velocity of a surrounding airflow in the inlet duct, and a feeder connected to the injector, the feeder being constructed and arranged to accept particulate matter from a feed hopper and feed the particulate matter in defined amounts into the injector; an outlet duct in communication with the outlet; a filter chamber in communication with the outlet duct, the filter chamber being provided with one or more filter elements constructed and arranged to remove particulate matter from air leaving the environmental test chamber through the outlet duct; and a blower coupled between the filter chamber and the inlet duct such that an inlet of the blower is exposed to filtered air from the filter chamber, the blower being constructed and arranged to create an airflow within the environmental testing system.