Unloked Digital, Author at Thermetrics

Since 2015, Thermetrics has been collaborating with Central Michigan University’s Center for Merchandising and Design Technology (CMDT) to support their thermal testing needs. The first piece of equipment CMDT ordered from Thermetrics was a customized Newton thermal manikin with a breastplate to conduct testing on garments for the female form. This was, of course, before we designed our Liz female thermal manikin. CMDT affectionately refers to their Newton as Norman or Norma, depending on the testing scenario.

The center provides a unique offering and perspective in that its focus is on bringing students into the lab to help conduct testing to research important, everyday problems. Oftentimes, students are the ones closest to the end-use case scenario being tested for. Students and faculty work side-by-side at CMDT to support client testing needs, in addition to testing scenarios of their own design. In fact, several theses have come out of the lab.

A picture of Lauren Agnew, Laboratory Coordinator and Instructor of Fashion, Interior Design & Merchandising posing with a Thermetrics-made baby thermal manikin, affectionately named Lumi and an adult thermal manikin, dubbed Norman. — Lauren Agnew, Laboratory Coordinator and Instructor of Fashion, Interior Design & Merchandising poses with thermal manikin testing equipment.

One of the test lab’s primary focuses is on infant-related testing of car seats, strollers, bedding, and other gear and clothing designed for babies. As an example, CMDT recently provided testing for, and contributed to a Global Innovation Award for wool-core diapers through New Zealand-based company, Woolchemy. Testing was done on a Thermetrics-made baby Ruth thermal manikin which the lab affectionately named, Lumi.

When asked about the working relationship between Thermetrics and CMDT, Lauren Agnew, Laboratory Coordinator and Instructor of Fashion, Interior Design & Merchandising said: “It’s a very collaborative relationship; they’re [Thermetrics] very willing to explore and go on the journey together to figure out the best-possible way to test something… Even when things don’t work out as expected, it’s all in the name of science and the inquisitive spirit is very much alive in the collaboration.” And the feeling is mutual! We really enjoy working with CMDT!

If you’re looking for a test lab, especially for infant-related clothing and gear, consider working with CMDT. We can confidently say they have a stellar track-record of keeping their test instruments in excellent working condition, following maintenance guidelines to a T.

Picture of Lauren Agnew, Laboratory Coordinator and Instructor of Fashion, Interior Design & Merchandising plus two students working on one of the thermal manikins in their test lab. — Students and staff working with a thermal test manikin at CMDT.

About the Partner Spotlight. Partner Spotlight is a fun opportunity for us to highlight the capabilities and accomplishments of one of our client-partners each quarter. As an industry-leading manufacturer of thermal manikin systems and other thermal testing equipment, we learn and grow best through partnerships with test labs across the U.S. and worldwide, in addition to collaborations with government and research organizations in need of thermal testing equipment for their innovative research projects. If you can imagine it, Thermetrics can design and build a system to test it!

At Thermetrics, we love collaborating with clients to help identify—or design, if a custom solution is needed—just the right precision equipment to meet their spacesuit testing needs. We’ve been thoroughly enjoying working with NASA in support of the Artemis missions, which have been using our thermal hand manikin and thermal foot manikin to test protective gear astronauts will need to survive on the dark side of the moon where temps are lower than -300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Do you have testing needs for a spacesuit or other equipment being designed to withstand the extreme conditions of the Moon, Mars, or beyond? We’d love to hear from you and discuss how we might be able to help! You can reach us any time by sending email to [email protected].

For more information about how NASA is using Thermetrics test systems:
Lending NASA a Hand in Preparation for the Artemis Missions
NASA Tests Key Spacesuit Parts Inside This Icy Chamber – NASA
Advancing Human Spaceflight Safety – NASA

NASA’s Artemis missions are sending astronauts back to the moon, and the team at Thermetrics has been given the opportunity to lend them a hand – literally!

The dark side of the moon is incredibly cold, with temperatures lower than -300 degrees Fahrenheit. With these extremely frigid conditions in mind, it is critical that astronauts have the proper equipment to keep every inch of their bodies safe and warm. But if you think they are just planning on adding a few extra layers to their space suits, think again.

While we can’t speak to the spacesuits in their entirety, we can speak to the gloves, as we’ve created technology to help test their resilience against triple-digit negative temperatures.

Testing the gloves for Artemis

A glove hand hand is sitting on a little metal box. In the background you can see wires, metal, and what looks like aluminum foil.

A single glove is placed on a manikin hand before it enters into a vacuum chamber that’s cooled with liquid nitrogen. The glove-covered hand is meticulously transferred from the loading chamber into the main chamber, which is incredibly cold, mimicking moon-like temperatures.

Once the glove-covered hand is in the freezing main chamber, measurements are taken. The glove is then pressed against a contact block, the equivalent of touching a cold surface, and measurements are again taken.Prior to working with Thermetrics, the testing consisted of people placing their own hand, covered in temperature sensors, in a glove and touching an object within the chamber. The measurements from the Thermetrics tests will be run against the measurements from old tests using human subjects to compare results.

The new testing will reduce the potential risk factors for humans by using quantitative instruments instead of human hands.

While testing is still in its early phases, we can’t wait to learn the impacts this technology will make within the worlds of science and space exploration.

Learn more about the work our team does here.

We’ve all been there. You’re in the air-conditioned car on the way home from the gym or a long practice, and your once hot and sweaty clothes are now cold, clingy, and uncomfortable. Researchers at NC State’s Wilson College of Textiles’ Textile Protection and Comfort Center (TPACC) are making efforts to remedy that discomfort and have made significant strides in doing so with the help of Thermetrics’ hotplate technology.

Recently, ASTM International, the globally recognized consensus standards organization, adopted a standardized test created by TPACC, designed to measure a fabric’s evaporative cooling efficiency. It’s likely this test, developed in part with the Sweating Dynamic Hotplate could soon be a go-to testing option for the activewear industry.

While other testing methods are available, they only measure certain factors regarding a product’s cooling capacity, as noted by NC State’s Shawn Deaton and Roger Barker in a journal article from “Medical and Science Technology.”

Want to learn more our Sweating Dynamic Hotplate? Check it out here.

Belmont Medical Technologies, a medical device company that provides leading patient temperature management solutions, and ThermoAnalytics, a thermal software company, know a mother will do anything to protect their baby, including reducing their infant’s body temperature to a hypothermic level to keep them safe when necessary.

While this may sound counterintuitive and borderline frightening, we’re honored to have partnered with both organizations in creating a human surrogate measurement device for testing infants undergoing therapeutic hypothermia.

Keep reading to learn more about this one-of-a-kind Baby Thermal Manikin.

Developing the Baby Thermal Manikin

In medical device development, bench models that can simulate in-vivo research (research done on a living organism) are preferable as they reduce cost and variables and can be completed more quickly than in-vivo studies. Previously, developers of patient temperature management systems that incorporate warming and cooling garments did not have a bench model that could simulate in-vivo studies due to the complex nature of human thermal physiology – until now.

While traditional thermal medical devices typically control the patient’s core temperature during operating procedures or in intensive care, a smaller field of patient temperature management called therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has a growing interest, especially in neonates with moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a type of brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen before or shortly after birth.

By combining our Baby Thermal Manikin with ThermoAnalytics’ customized thermal software, we were able to create a thermal model to assist Belmont in its TH research.

Temperature management products are used to induce TH in neonates by reducing the core temperature as low as 33⁰C (91.4⁰F), which has shown to have therapeutic benefits on cardia and patients with brain injury [ 1 , 2 ]. For neonatal patients, TH improves survival and neurodevelopment in neonates [ 3 ].

During temperature management, it is critical to maintain temperature to deliver the correct therapy while cooling to therapeutic temperatures and rewarming to normothermic temperatures. The device is controlled by a human thermal model, and can simulate thermoregulation to predict core temperature – helping to more safely study the impacts of TH in infants.

So, whether you’re a medical device engineer, thermal scientist, or loving mother, we can all appreciate the impact the Baby Thermal Manikin will make on science, medicine, and our littlest loved ones.

1. Papile, Lu-Ann, Jill E. Baley, William Benitz, James Cummings, Waldemar A. Carlo, Eric Eichenwald, Praveen Kumar, Richard A. Polin, Rosemarie C. Tan, and Kasper S. Wang. "Hypothermia and neonatal encephalopathy." Pediatrics 133, no. 6 (2014): 1146-1150.

2. Holzer, Michael, Stephen A. Bernard, Said Hachimi-Idrissi, Risto O. Roine, Fritz Sterz, Marcus Müllner, and Collaborative Group on Induced Hypothermia for Neuroprotection After Cardiac Arrest. "Hypothermia for neuroprotection after cardiac arrest: systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis." Critical care medicine 33, no. 2 (2005): 414-418.

3. Azzopardi, Denis, Brenda Strohm, Neil Marlow, Peter Brocklehurst, Aniko Deierl, Oya Eddama, Julia Goodwin et al. "Effects of hypothermia for perinatal asphyxia on childhood outcomes." New England Journal of Medicine 371, no. 2 (2014): 140-149.

How do you combat climate change and its impact on the human body in urban and desert environments? While we don’t quite have the answer yet, we are proud to say that our thermal manikin, ANDI, is helping researchers like Arizona State University’s (ASU) associate professor of mechanical engineering, Konrad Rykaczewski, find the answer. Konrad was kind enough to share how they’re using ANDI in their research, and we were thrilled to learn – just in time for Earth Day!

Thermetrics president Rick Burke recently visited Arizona State University (ASU) to drop off (and set up) the promising young man(ikin), dedicated to helping some of these brilliant minds conduct environmental research.

Thermetrics: Why did you choose ANDI for your research?

Konrad: One of the things ANDI enables over prior manikins is more accurate measurements of the heat transfer coefficient from the human body, basically measuring how much heat people lose to the surrounding air.

Usually, a manikin’s skin temperature is regulated to a fixed level above the environment temperature, and different labs measure at different temperatures. Those results feed into various models and predictions, which don’t always align.

Typically you measure how much heat the manikin loses to the environment. That includes convection and radiation exchange. The radiation exchange is difficult to account for, but if you do one experiment where you have cold air blowing over the manikin, and then the same experiment with hot air blowing over the manikin, you get a negative heat flux. From the difference between these two scenarios, you can find out what the radiation is, and you can directly account for it. No one has been able to do this before. With ANDI’s active cooling capability, this can enable measurement in a different way that hasn’t been done before, and could resolve measurement discrepancies.

Thermetrics: What are the benefits of being able to take ANDI outdoors, as opposed to only conducting research in a lab?

Konrad: If you’re going to design clothes for hot weather, it needs to move beyond just loose, lightweight clothing. With human heat transfer, details matter. If you understand how a person heats in hot conditions, you can try to find different ways to address that. Most other manikins don’t have internal cooling, so one of the things we can do on a hot summer day is set up an experiment with ANDI running in constant temperature mode and put different types of potential cooling clothing. For example, let’s say we focus on what hat is best to wear in the scorching sun. There are all these options ranging from hats that are reflective or cooled with ice packs or evaporation to maybe bit silly things like umbrella hats, and it’s not obvious what actually works, and in the lab it’s almost impossible to replicate near overhead solar radiation well.

ANDI will help us identify a problem and determine how good or bad certain products are. Then, we can try and intelligently improve them. In regards to our basic measurements that correlate ANDI heating by different modes (convection, solar radiation, long wave radiation) to what is typically measured using state-of-the art weather stations, such information might ultimately help cities know which mechanisms to use in urban planning against the heat.

Want to learn more about ANDI?

From heat transfer to hats, we are excited to see the strides ANDI, Konrad, and the team at ASU make in urban planning against the heat. Learn more about ANDI’s work at ASU here.

ANDI, the world’s most advanced thermal manikin, is on a mission to make the world a better, safer place, and the team at Thermetrics is eager to get him into the hands of the leading scientists and engineers who can make that happen.

Associate professor of mechanical engineering, Konrad Rykaczewski, and his colleagues received an NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program grant to fund ANDI in 2021. Now, several ASU students are using ANDI in their thesis on climate change and its impact on the human body and increasing temperatures in urban and desert environments.

ANDI has been modified to enable measurements in extremely hot urban indoor and outdoor settings, including a chamber built to expose and test ANDI to other climates, like Arizona in the summer – hello, heat! – and cities even hotter than Phoenix.

According to the Arizona Burn Center, pavement and asphalt temperatures can reach up to 170 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit and cause severe burn injuries.

While Rick was thrilled to see ANDI with his new friends in the desert, he would have been remiss not to present other use cases for ANDI and Thermetrics’ manikins outside of the Southwest.

During his presentation, Rick discussed:

How Thermetrics manikins are being used to investigate how to regulate body temperatures of patients under anesthesia
ANDI’s role in protecting people from extreme external hazards like heat and cold
ANDI’s role in protecting people from extreme internal hazards like heat stress and dehydration
The benefits of using state of the art manikins for increased safety, cost-effectiveness, timeliness, and high quality clothing creation

After his presentation, Rick was able to tour the lab, learn more about how students are using ANDI, and even reconnect with his old friend.

Learn more about ANDI, and the pivotal role he’s playing in climate change research here.

Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear sports bras. And thanks to Liz, our female manikin, it’s easier now than ever before to make sure those sports bras fit just right.

This International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the strength and uniqueness of women and the organizations that are championing equality by making clothing specially designed for the female form.

From firefighters to athletes, our female manikins are helping companies like Nike pave the way for women to perform any role with clothing tailored to their needs. Quoted in a recent MSN feature, Nike credited our Liz Thermal Manikin in their development of more size-inclusive and performance-optimized sports bras for women. (The team at Nike calls her Haley, but we’re hooked on the original Liz moniker!) Read the MSN article here.

Nike uses Liz for both quality control and testing, and also at earlier product development stages when designers are considering enhancement options like additional ventilation or sweat wicking.

If you’d like to join Nike in their quest to “create the best products possible for [women]” or if you’ve made great progress with your Newton or ANDI, and realize it’s time to bring on a partner that will allow you to specifically test garments on the female form, Liz is your gal!

Reach out to discuss your testing needs and learn more here:

To start the year off right, we thought we should begin with an important introduction:

Meet our Thermetrics Service Engineers!

Without regular servicings, even the best equipment can drift and produce inaccurate results. To ensure optimal system operation, we recommend annual calibrations by a Thermetrics-trained Service Engineer. But who exactly are the service technicians who’ll be coming to your facility to service your Thermetrics system? Come meet them!

Image and headline of Thermetrics service engineer

How long have you been with Thermetrics?

3 years

How many years of total industry experience do you have?

3 years

How many countries have you serviced systems in?

6 countries so far

Do you have a favorite system to service, and why?

Integrated chambers because they are one of the most reliable systems. The Newton Manikin takes second place.

What’s your craziest service trip story (that can be retold in public!)?

On a recent trip with my coworker Ian, we ended up talking to a guy at the hotel bar who was intrigued by our systems. Another fellow from France joined the conversation, and we had a great conversation in French. It’s been like 10 years since I’ve spoken French. Not a crazy story, but a nice service trip memory.

It seems that everyone at Thermetrics has built or heavily modified their car. You too?

As fun as it looks, I don’t have time for car modifications between traveling and playing in my Mariachi band.

5 members of a mariachi band in an office

How long have you been with Thermetrics?

2 years

How many years of total industry experience do you have?

3 years technical experience, 5 years customer service experience

How many countries have you serviced systems in?

3 countries. More to come!

Do you have a favorite system to service, and why?

Newton. When they are cared for with proper calibrations, they will last for a decade and easily complete over 10,000 hours of testing.

What’s your craziest service trip story (that can be retold in public!)?

On My first day in Portugal I met a great group of friends who Invited me out to experience the local culture. They took me to a poetry night at which they were performing and before I left they brought me into their home and cooked me a traditional homemade meal. It was my first time going on a trip alone and my first time in Europe and I had an amazing time.

It seems that everyone at Thermetrics has built or heavily modified their car. You too?

I drive a lightly modified BMW E91 wagon. Most recently, I upgraded the suspension and wheels to improve the handling. It’s my favorite gear-hauler and grocery-getter because it is practical but still sporty and stylish enough to put a smile on my face every time I am behind the wheel.

How long have you been with Thermetrics?

Newest addition! I’ve been here for 6 months now.

How many years of total industry experience do you have?

4 years

How many countries have you serviced systems in?

4 and counting.

Do you have a favorite system to service, and why?

Definitely the flash fire cylinder. Because who doesn’t like playing with fire?

What’s your craziest service trip story (that can be retold in public!)?

Going last minute to repair the CDC’s manikin, so they could meet their deadline to present to the President of the United States.

It seems that everyone at Thermetrics has built or heavily modified their car. You too?.

Yep, she’s a lightly modified but heavily maintenanced 1995 E36 M3. For the other carheads reading this, I’ve modified the intake, full exhaust, suspension, euro lights, and replica lightweight aero.

A close-up photo of a dark car in a parking lot

How long have you been with Thermetrics?

I started with Thermetrics in late June of ’23, and after just over half a year, I’m still excited to come to work everyday, learn something new, and work with some truly amazing people.

How many years of total industry experience do you have?

This particular industry is so unique, I feel like I have none! But I’ve been doing field service work for about 6 years, in industrial automation and manufacturing mostly.

How many countries have you serviced systems in?

U.S and Canada, but I’m going to Brazil next month.

Do you have a favorite system to service, and why?

I’d have to say the Newton Thermal Manikins, which are always complex and require special attention, but are extremely rewarding to fix.

What’s your craziest service trip story (that can be retold in public!)?

I have crazier sea stories than I have service trip stories, but if we’re being strictly professional, I’d have to say a few weeks ago in North Carolina, I accomplished 35 wet-board replacements; 140 discrete solder operations with 100% success rate!

It seems that everyone at Thermetrics has built or heavily modified their car. You too?

I’m not a car guy, but I am an enthusiastic skier.

How to Get Your Thermetrics Testing Equipment Serviced

Email [email protected] to request a quote and our Support Team will get you on the Calibration Calendar.

Calibration is the only way to ensure that your finely-tuned equipment continues to deliver the reliable data that your product development process requires. Reach out today and let’s get you calibrated!

Your Thermetrics testing system is a piece of precision testing equipment, but without regular calibrations, even the best equipment can drift and produce inaccurate results.

You’ve got the Ferrari of manikins in your hands, so it needs more than the basic oil change you’d give a Honda Civic. (No disrespect to Civics!). We recommend annual calibrations for all Thermetrics systems to ensure optimal system operation.

To that end, we’ve simplified our service offerings to help you get the calibrations that will keep your thermal system running at its optimal level.

Say Hello to our Easiest Service Options Yet!

If your Thermetrics system hasn’t been calibrated in over a year, or you’d like to get something on the calendar for post-warranty, we’ve streamlined the process with three clear options. Pick yours below:

How to Get Your Thermetrics Testing Equipment Serviced:

Step 1: Select the calibration option that works best for you. This is not one-size-fits-all.

Step 2: Email [email protected] to request a quote and work with our Support Team to get on the Calibration Calendar.

Step 3: Big sigh of relief! Your finely-tuned equipment will continue to deliver the reliable data that your product development process requires.

Contact us today and let’s get you calibrated!

Author: Unloked Digital

Partner Spotlight: Central Michigan University’s CMDT

World-class precision test instruments for spacesuit testing

Precision systems built to test the limits of equipment built for the extreme conditions in space

Lending NASA a Hand in Preparation for the Artemis Missions

NC State Creates New Textile Test with Help from Thermetrics’ Hotplate Technology

Improving Infant Safety with the Baby Thermal Manikin

Developing the Baby Thermal Manikin

Celebrating Earth Day by Using a Thermal Manikin to Combat Climate Change

ANDI teams up with Arizona State in the fight against climate change

Celebrating International Women’s Day with our Liz Manikin

Meet the Thermetrics Service Engineers!

How to Get Your Thermetrics Testing Equipment Serviced

No-Contract Calibrations Now Available!

Say Hello to our Easiest Service Options Yet!

How to Get Your Thermetrics Testing Equipment Serviced: