Understand the Process of Product Testing
Industries make most of the products we use in our lives. Drugs, cosmetics, electrical goods, hardware and others in that category are some of the products we use from the industries. The raw materials used to make these products are diverse. The effect of these goods on the people using them or the environment may sometimes be unknown and exposing them to the public without testing might be risky. This reason has made it necessary for al consumer products to be tested before use.
Product testing is also called comparative testing or consumer testing. Before products can make it to the market, the manufacturer is supposed to perform a series of tests. Product testing is however done on a representative sample and not on the entire stash of goods produced. The results obtained are then taken as the overall representative of the other products. For a product to make it to the market, it has to have undergone a series of tests. We now look at some tests done on consumer products prior to their consumption.
The first test is that done on foods, drugs and cosmetics. Before being tested on humans, the products are first tested on animals. The basic requirement for testing a product on an animal is that the animals being used for testing the product have to be protected. When doing the tests on an animal, the manufacturer hopes that the effects of the drug, food or cosmetic will yield the same results when tested on humans. Two tests, dermal and oral, are given to the animal. To test for the products effects when ingested, oral tests are performed on the animals. The other tests are dermal tests which are performed on animals to test the effect of the products on the skin of the users. Human subject testing is then done after the product has passed the tests on animals.
When doing tests on products we do not consume, animals are not used as test subjects. Vehicles, mobile phones, televisions, utensils and other like items are examples in this category. These products have tests based on their expected uses. The tests are conducted in simulated environments. A replica of the stresses and other dynamics of the product while in use are made and then subjected to the tests. Some of these tests based on the use of different product may include light, noise, wind, vibrations and many more.
The final tests before the release of any product for use are the environmental tests. How harmful the product of its remains are to the environment has to be established through tests before the release of the product. These tests aim at establishing how quickly the product decomposes and if it releases any harmful gases to the atmosphere. Failing the environmental test is enough ground to prevent the release of a product into the market.