AL 4021 Chamber Testing: Correlation to EN 717-1

The AL4021 formaldehyde monitor can be employed together with standard test chambers, either connected directly to the output line of the chamber or connected via a valve controller (ALV08/12) to multiple chambers. In both cases the gas flow is controlled by the in-built flow controller of the AL4021.

Setup of an AL4021 with 4 emission chambers connected via the valve-cluster ALV08/12. A maximum of 12 chambers or other gas sources can be connected to on Aero-Laser instrument.

Measuring formaldehyde emissions with test chambers by an AL4021 is a time saving alternative to the conventional flask method widely used in combination with the chamber methods standardized in the European standard EN 717-1 and the American standards ASTM E1333, and ASTM D6007. As a validation of equivalency between the AL4021 measurement and the standard acetyl-acetone method in chamber testing, a set of samples was tested with both methods by external scientists from the Institut für Holzforschung Dresden IDH, Dresden, Germany. The results prove the equivalency to EN 717-1. As an example the data for chipboard is shown below.

Data from 20 chipboard samples measured both with flask method and acetyl acetone according to the European standard EN 717-1 (black) and the AL4021 (red).

Correlation of the above chipboard data set. The equivalency of the methods within the statistical errors is confirmed by the coefficients of the linear regression.