Acoustic Test Services & Facilities

Harris Acoustic Products boasts both indoor and outdoor in-water test facilities which accomodate a broad range of acoustic component testing.

The company's East Walpole facility includes a 5,000 square foot (450 square meters) acoustic test area with an 85,000-gallon (322,150 liter) indoor test pool -- one of the largest commercial indoor test tanks in the northeast. Also in place is a 1,500-psi pressure vessel, and an environmental test chamber with a temperature range of -70 degrees to +200 degrees F (-21 degrees to +93 degrees C).

Harris Acoustic Products' open water test facility in Gloucester, Massachusetts handles transducers of up to 2,000 pounds

The entire test pool area is temperature and humidity controlled and covered with computer flooring, allowing for an infinite placement of transducers and hydrophones. The indoor test tank area is capable of handling individual transducers of up to 1000 pounds (450 kg).

Harris Acoustic Products also performs acoustic tests off-site at a company-owned quarry located in Gloucester, Massachusetts. This open water test facility measures 350 feet x 550 feet x 100 feet deep. The facility has a permanently moored test barge, which is reached via a 200-foot flotation walkway. The test barge is both heated and air conditioned for year-round use.

Water temperature ranges from 34 degrees F in winter to about 70 degrees F in summer. Three circulators located at a depth of 30 feet keep the facility ice-free and minimize temperature gradients. Normal test depth is 30 feet, with greater depths obtained using special rigging. Test separations in excess of 100 feet are easily obtained.

Both in-water test facilities are equipped with a full complement of both digital and analog sonar test equipment, capable of performing the following:

Transmit Voltage/Current/Power Response
Impedance/Admittance/Phase vs. Frequency
Power Linearity
Receive Voltage Response
Transmit and Receive Beam Patterns
FFT Analysis

Measurements are performed in accordance with ANSI-SI.20-1988, Procedures for Calibration of Underwater Electroacoustic Transducers, and are referenced to standard projectors and hydrophones which have been calibrated by NRL/USRD.