No more dirty chambers in Florence

No more excuses for dirty chambers for the visitors of the IEEE APS/URSI 2024 Florence (IT) symposium after Rik de Groot, managing director of our sister company DMAS, demonstrated the dust-free closed-cell absorber he and his team developed for antenna testing.

How did the attendees respond to our message of ‘no more dirty chambers’? Rik: “When people walked by, they saw the ‘free from dust’ proposition, and then I saw them linking it to the claim about no more dirty chambers. Mostly, they stop for a talk because it is very recognisable and appealing to professionals who work in antenna test chambers. For example, they tell me it’s necessary, but it is also company policy to wash your hands after visiting the test chamber and to walk over special mats to clean their shoes. One guy joked and told me his sneakers were so black because of the old, leaking absorbers they used. But they appeared to be black in the first place!”

Why are the floors so dirty? Rik: “One reason for the dirty shoes is working with floor absorbers that need to be removed manually for every test. This creates a lot of dirt and wears down the absorbers, causing decreased performance. We created a solution for this particular problem called walkway absorbers. An epoxy grid on pedestals is mounted over regular DMAS absorber material so you can easily access AUT without contacting the floor absorbers.”

Was it worth attending the symposium? “Sure! Next to introducing our solutions for the Comtest chambers, we brought a lot of smiles to people’s faces, intended and unintended. One man took one of the hand sanitisers we gave away without saying anything and came back the next day to ask if he could clean his phone screen with it. I wouldn’t recommend it, but he and I had a lot of fun about it in the end. And making professionals happy makes me happy, as well.”

For more information about clean absorber solutions, message Rik de Groot from Dutch Microwave Absorber Solutions.

The 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and ITNC-USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting was held at the ”Fortezza da Basso” Convention Center in Florence, Italy, from July 14 to 19. The symposium brings together leading researchers, engineers, and practitioners worldwide to share their knowledge and expertise on the latest advances in antennas and propagation, radio science and electromagnetic engineering. The event is co-sponsored by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (IEEE AP-S), the Italian National Committee (ITNC) and the US National Committee (USNC) of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI).