Accelerated Weathering Test In Polymer Industries

Posted by kunal on June 23rd, 2019

Most of the products produced in polymer industries suffer many weathering effects. Whenever a product is exposed to open environment, there are effects of ultraviolet radiation from sunlight as well as other factors such as moisture, humidity, etc. For this reason, it is important to evaluate the properties of a material to resist the effects of weathering in certain environmental conditions. It is important for the designers and manufacturers to determine the effects of weathering on the polymers so that essential efforts could be made to enhance the product quality and properties. The major concerns for most of the polymer products include Bell Environmental Chamber temperature fluctuation, humidity, moisture Ultra Violet and high temperature. As polymers are meant for everyday use and are frequently exposed to the open environment, It is essential to know the expected lifespan of a polymer under certain conditions. In this way, necessary changes could be introduced to the polymer designs to enhance the life of the product.

A major effect of weathering that most of the polymers experience is the change in color. The color of any polymer is determined by its chemical properties and configuration. After a long time of exposure to the open environment, several chemical properties of the polymers change which leads to change in their color. Other effects include the development of crack, decrease in mechanical strength, compressive strength, tensile strength, etc.

There are three types of weathering tests that are used for evaluation of weather on the materials that are natural weathering, artificial weathering and accelerated weathering test. In natural weathering, the product is exposed to natural environmental conditions for general evaluation of the properties of a material. In accelerated weathering tests, the material is placed in the testing instrument known as accelerated weathering tester in which artificial conditions of actual weather are created such as humidity, moisture, and UV. In this way, the weathering process is accelerated and results are obtained faster to study the properties of polymers. Most of the equipments use Xenon lamps, carbon lamp or fluorescent lamps for stimulation of natural sunlight inside the chamber.

There is a large number of manufacturers providing a plethora of high-quality apparatuses including Accelerated weathering tester. The machines offered by these manufacturers are best manufacturers provided with enhanced memory capacity, which enables them to record history. Along with that, they also come with temperature and humidity control which are very helpful for the operator to perform the test easily and accurately.