No Product is an Island
Published Tuesday, September 23, 2014
No modern home is made of just one product. And no one product within a home works without some reliance on one or more other products. Homes are complex systems of systems and every product has to work effectively within that framework.
You are probably already doing all the tests required for your product in the code. You may have even commissioned some additional testing to prove some of your marketing assertions that your product is the most durable, fastest to install, or most economical compared to your competitors. But what about knowing how your product performs in real-world combinations with other products, materials, or systems? That's the kind of information that can be truly valuable to your customers, and allow you to stand out from your competitors. And how about knowing what effect a change in your product would have on its inter-product relationship and performance? This type of testing also puts you in the best position for future product development efforts.
Don't be the weakest link in your clients' home systems, or get in your own way on the path to your next innovation. Understand how your product works in relation to the most common - or even the most uncommon - connections and assemblies. Consider conducting non-standard testing with Home Innovation Research Labs in one of our unique testing set ups, such as:
- Our large-scale hot box, a specially-calibrated instrument designed to measure heat flow for large building specimens.
- The "racker," used to understand the shear wall performance of building assemblies.
- Our Southwerk-Emery universal testing machine, designed to either push or pull on a test specimen to determine compressive strength, bending capacity, tensile strength, or withdrawal failure.
These are just some of the testing types we are accredited to conduct – you can find a list of all our test methods, accreditations, and lab equipment on our website. If you’re interested in discussing the big picture in product testing, and how your product fits into it, let me know.