By Jane Castles What do antiperspirants, automatic teller machines, airline seats, and a cyclist have in common?
They are some of the many and varied items which have been tested in an advanced climate chamber recently acquired by the University's Faculty of Health Sciences.
Originally at the CSIRO in Ryde, the chamber has been upgraded and relocated to the School of Exercise and Sports Science on the Cumberland campus, where it is being used for an eclectic range of academic and commercial purposes.
Dr Barry Holcombe, a scientist from CSIRO Wool Technology currently on secondment to the School, said there was no facility in the world comparable to the chamber in terms of size and performance.
Cyclist Phil Chapman works up a sweat for Professor Martin Thompson (centre) and Dr Barry Holcombe.
"There aren't any with the same features and same capacity to reproduce such a wide range of climate conditions," Dr Holcombe said.
Worth an estimated $500,000, the chamber's temperature can range anywhere from –20degC to +60degC. Not only can the chamber mimic the seasons, it can move from one to another within half an hour, and in a controlled way if required.
Not surprisingly, the facility has already attracted considerable interest from researchers and manufacturers keen to test their products – everything from ATMs to bed linen – in different climate conditions. Dr Holcombe and the Head of the School of Exercise and Sports Science, Associate Professor Martin Thompson, have recently been using the chamber to evaluate a newly developed sportswear textile made from wool.
"Sport wool" is a double-faced textile developed by layering a fine wool on to one face and a synthetic fibre on to another. The two separate faces act as a platform that moves sweat away from the body.
"Fifty years ago everything was wool, but it was displaced because it wasn't high-tech enough. Now we have gone full-circle to create a product that's better than the best of any synthetic fibre," Professor Thompson said.
The material has been subject to rigorous testing in the climate chamber. Sophisticated sweat capsules were hooked to the body of cyclists, including Exercise and Sports Science student Phil Chapman, to see how the sport wool responded to, and modified, heat and moisture levels.
"We found that there is a reduced moisture accumulation in the initial period of exercise," Professor Thompson said. "There is less moisture build up between skin and garment, the humidity is lower and there is a reduced feeling of clamminess."
Professor Thompson said the climate chamber was an "enormous" asset to the University. "The range of temperatures combined with the fine control over humidity makes it probably the leading climate chamber in the world."