Polymer products are often affected by solar rays, excessive humidity, and extreme temperatures. Performance degradation of your products or systems caused by typical to extreme environmental conditions can result in damage to people or property. There is no substitute for putting products in real climates and observing how they perform. However, testing in an open weather environment is not practical for most companies or manufacturers. Accelerated aging testing is a more cost-effective test method to ensure that polymer materials and products meet their expected function and service life. Alfa Chemistry has extensive equipment and a dedicated team to perform accelerated aging tests and provide you with the most reliable test results in the shortest possible time.
By simulating natural weather conditions in the test chamber, Alfa Chemistry has greatly accelerated the testing time of polymer products. The accelerated weathering testing conditions simulated in the lab include, but are not limited to the following.
Alfa Chemistry offers the following accelerated weathering test projects for polymeric materials.
● Xenon Arc accelerated weathering test
The xenon test simulates the weathering process of indoor and outdoor sunlight on the material. A Xenon Arc lamp, when filtered properly, most closely simulates both UV and visible wavelength ranges making it an excellent option for testing exposure to natural solar radiation.
We will test in accordance with ASTM D1248, ASTM D2565, ASTM D4459, ASTM D5071, ASTM D6662, DIN EN 513, I SO 29664, I SO 4892-2, but we can also conduct the test according to the specific requirements of our customers.
● Accelerated UV weathering test
Accelerated UV weathering reproduces the damaging outdoor conditions in a controlled laboratory environment. Our UV weathering test chamber creates artificial weathering condition with combination of UV light, temperature, condensing humidity, water sprays, and irradiance control in order to test the damaging results of materials exposed outdoors for long periods of time.
We will test in accordance with ASTM G154, ASTM D4329, ASTM D4587, ASTM D7238, I SO 4892-3, I SO 11507, but we can also conduct the test according to the specific requirements of our customers.
● Thermal shock test
Rapid fluctuations in temperature can adversely affect the performance and life cycle durability of polymer products. Thermal shock testing simulates the life cycle of a product by exposing it to rapid temperature changes.
We will test in accordance with MIL STD 202, MIL STD 810, MIL STD 883, but we can also conduct the test according to the specific requirements of our customers.
● Other tests
In addition to the above, our accelerated weathering test also includes salt fog test, temperature and humidity cycle, altitude test, etc. If you have any other testing needs, please feel free to contact us.
● We can simulate years of sunlight in just a few days.
● We can test polymer products for resistance to environmental effects, weathering, temperature, humidity, and repeated UV moisture exposure.
● We can test polymer materials under specific conditions to determine their critical properties before and after exposure.
● We can test the accelerated weathering results of polymer materials in different fields, including automotive, building products, solar, aerospace, etc.
