The accelerated ageing test allows us to reproduce in the laboratory the damage that an item would suffer in months or years of exposure to sunlight, rain and dew, all in just a few days.
When we buy something, whether in a private or professional context, we always hope that it retains its characteristics as much as possible. We hope that it remains aesthetically the same even after years, that structurally it suffers no damage, that nothing compromises its functionality. In other words, that it lasts over time.
Very often, however, this remains a hope, because in many cases there is no way of knowing what will happen in a few years, other than by relying on personal experience, forecasts and opinions, more or less truthful and reliable.
Fortunately, in the field of industrial painting, this aspect can be defined with precision, leaving little room for doubts and misunderstandings. It is something safe, certain, which in some ways is reassuring about certain aspects related to surface treatments. Let us discover what the accelerated ageing test (Accelerated Weathering Test) is and why it often proves fundamental in the decision-making and design phases related to painting.
“Seeing into the future” is perhaps the most apt expression to describe how the test works.
The accelerated ageing test allows us to reproduce in the laboratory the damage that an item would suffer in months or years of exposure to sunlight, rain and dew, all in just a few days.
It is an ageing simulation with which a special instrument subjects the chosen materials to alternating cycles of radiation with special UV lamps and to humidity, as well as to controlled high temperatures.
It is an extremely useful test to understand the resistance of a surface treatment against time and external agents, in order to evaluate its effectiveness in the long term.
One of the most interesting aspects of this test is the so-called “irradiance control”: it is a precision control system that automatically maintains the intensity of the light thanks to a feedback system. In practice, a dedicated regulator monitors the intensity of the UV rays and compensates for any decay of the lamps or any other variable by adjusting their power.
This system is vital as it ensures better reproducibility and repeatability of the tests, a fundamental factor for any test, so that it is possible to define a standard.
The standard that governs this test is ISO 16474:2014.