Newton and his thermal manikin family are already looking forward to moving day, so keep an eye on this blog for new announcements as the website design work moves forward. I should note that our partner in this project is Williams-Helde Marketing Communications (www.williams-helde.com), a Seattle agency selected not just for their creative expertise but because they also have a hyphen in their website address! Our partnership was clearly meant to be.

Our Founders

Measurement Technology NW, founded October 15, 1986, designs and manufactures precision biophysical instruments for evaluating the thermal comfort of textiles, garments, protective apparel, seats, beds, and dynamic thermal environments such as aircraft, truck, and automobile interiors.

Our company’s growth into the thermal comfort testing industry began in 1988, with delivery of a Thermal Hand manikin system to USARIEM (United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine) which was used to test gloves and protective handwear for soldiers. This project not only helped USARIEM advance the science of soldier protection, it also launched Measurement Technology NW into the thermal comfort test equipment business.  Expertise gained through the development of the Thermal Hand manikin allowed MTNW to win research contracts for other thermal comfort testing equipment and, as they say, the rest is history:

1988 – Thermal Hand Manikin

1994 – Guarded Hotplate System

1996 – “Bo” Heat Pipe Thermal Manikin

1999 – “Newton” Articulated Thermal Manikin

2001 – “ADAM” 126-zone Sweating Thermal Manikin

2005 – “NEMO” Submersible Thermal Manikin

2006 – “HVAC” Automotive Manikin System

2011 – Flame Test Manikin System

Next – IPEMS Robotic Thermal Manikin

Since 1986 Measurement Technology NW has installed over 250 manikin and hotplate systems, making us the industry’s most experienced source for advanced thermal testing equipment – now and for the next 25 years to come!

Newton at ITMA 2011

Newton had an excellent trip to Barcelona, Spain for the ITMA 2011 textile exhibition. As a booth companion, I can say he was definitely the strong, silent type – not much for conversation but quite popular nonetheless. Sharing the spotlight with Newton were Measurement Technology NW’s SGHP-8.2 sweating hotplate (skin model), and our new RPP (Radiant Protective Performance) device for assessing a fabric’s resistance to radiant heat energy.

All these items garnered significant interest and proved that ITMA is the premier show for the textile industry. To call it a huge exhibition is an understatement. It was a full 8 days long, with attendance totaling well over 100,000 people. Every facet of the textile industry is represented: from raw materials, to finished goods, to everything in-between.

Next up for MTNW is the IFAI Expo in Baltimore (October 25-27), where Newton will put on a repeat performance. The SGHP-8.2 unit we had on display at ITMA remained in Europe, but at IFAI it will be replaced with our TPP (Thermal Protective Performance) device.

Interested? Come on by! You’ll find Measurement Technology NW in Booth 2509.

At ITMA, Measurement Technology NW will be displaying a 26-zone Newton sweating thermal manikin with physiological control model, a SGHP-8.2 sweating hotplate, an RPP (Radiant Protective Performance) device, and, hopefully, a TPP (Thermal Protective Performance) device. For those of you traveling to Barcelonafor the big ITMA show, you’ll find Measurement Technology NW in Hall 2, Booth A164.

At the IFAI Expo, we plan to display the 26-zone Newton sweating thermal manikin with physiological control model, an RPP (Radiant Protective Performance) device, and the TPP (Thermal Protective Performance) device. We may include some other items too, but until final decisions are made you’ll just have to find a way to deal with the suspense. October is a beautiful time of the year to be on the East coast, and if attending the IFAI Expo is part of your travel plans you’ll find Measurement Technology NW in Booth 2509.

Oh, and we have new booth display banners too!

New Booth Display Banners

The requirements were simple. Wear a Hawaiian shirt and be ready to eat! Our talented machinist Brian Welch is also a pig-roasting connoisseur, and thanks to his watchful eye over the 10-hour roasting period, this particular pig was moist, delicious, and reduced to a pile of scraps by the time lunch was over.

For more information on the Flame Test Manikin and Burn Chamber system installed at Donghua University, keep an eye out for our next thermal newsletter, coming soon!

After the show and before my flight home I saw one of Frankfurt’s more unique sights: the “Beer Bike”. A human-powered beer bar, five seats on a side, each seat with a set of bicycle pedals underneath. If you were thirsty and a seat was open all you had to do was run alongside, hop onto the seat, and start pedaling while the driver/bartender served you a beer from the keg in front!

It was a memorable example of German efficiency – a place to have fun, drink beer, and work off the calories, all at the same time.

Newton at VTMS

If you happen to be at the VTMS 10 show in Warwickshire, UK this week, Measurement Technology NW is there too, displaying a 26-zone Newton thermal manikin running ManikinPC2 human comfort model software (as part of the ThermoAnalytics booth).

ManikinPC2 (Manikin Physiology Control and Predictive Comfort) software is a closed-loop feedback control package that accurately mimics the human thermoregulatory system and provides metrics for thermal comfort and thermal sensation. The software permits variable activity levels that simulate the human metabolism while resting, working, or exercising.

Set an activity level and appropriate metabolic wattages will be imposed onto the manikin. Want to learn more? Well, you could come by the ThermoAnalytics booth to see if Newton is comfortable. Or, you could ask us to set up a demonstration to show how comfortable Newton is. Thanks to ManikinPC2 software, he’ll be able to tell you!

In fact, sometime next week we will welcome aboard MTNW’s 40^th team member. We’re not sure where to put his desk, but we do know his engineering skills will quickly be put to good use. Thankfully there is no shortage of things to work on these days, and that happy fact is a clear testament to the company’s dedication to continuous product improvement and new product innovation – even during the down times.

That dedication is the main reason we now offer a new, state-of-the-art Flame Test Manikin system, smartly designed TPP and RPP test devices, an advanced physiological comfort model (ManikinPC2) for our Newton thermal manikins, and a new Integrated Chamber for the SGHP hotplate. Couple these high-profile achievements to a long list of “under the hood” refinements made to our existing lineup of thermal testing products and you can see that the growth we’re enjoying today is no accident.

So we’ll continue to invest in product innovation and improvement. We’ll accept the fact that growth is a very good problem to have. Somewhere, we’ll find room for another desk. And the new guy will have to fight for a parking space just like the rest of us.

MTNW Staff

ITMA 2011

We are still putting together plans on what equipment to bring, but the chances are good that the list will include a Newton sweating thermal manikin and one or two other examples of our thermal comfort and protective apparel test equipment. If you have any specific requests for MTNW equipment you would like to see displayed at ITMA, let us know and we’ll do our best to make it happen.

ITMA is a great trade show, so for anyone who plans to attend let this be an advance invitation for you to come by the MTNW booth and introduce yourself. So much of our international communications are by email, and it is trade shows like ITMA that let us connect face-to-face with existing clients and get to know potential new customers.

If that’s not a good enough reason to attend ITMA, I also understand Barcelona is beautiful in September…

We are just days away from shipping our first Integrated Chamber, built specifically for the SGHP sweating guarded hotplate models. When used with either the SGHP-8.2 or SGHP-10.5 hotplate, both hotplate and chamber are fully integrated as one unit and both can be operated using our ThermDAC control software (which explains the USB port photo!). All hotplate and chamber test settings can be made from one operator interface for better accuracy and data tracking capabilities.

Of course, the Integrated Chamber can also be controlled manually, but we think having a single-point control interface for hotplate and chamber is a major benefit (and very cool too). Even better, the Integrated Chamber’s space-efficient design allows it to be inexpensively shipped and easily transported through narrow laboratory doorways, thanks to exterior dimensions of only 34″W x 38″D x 70″H. 

Don’t let the Integrated Chamber’s compact size fool you. It’s a full-featured steady state environmental chamber that’s built to last, with specifications that include heavy-duty components, an insulated door with window, dual LED cabinet lights, and a removable top shelf for the preconditioning of fabric samples. A protective floor plate (to cover the SGHP test plate surface) allows the chamber to be used for other lab purposes.

Integrated Chamber for SGHP