The Accelerated Weathering Test allows us to reproduce in the laboratory the damage that an article would suffer over months or years of exposure to sunlight, rain and dew, all in a matter of days.
When we buy something, both privately and professionally, we always hope that it maintains its characteristics as much as possible. We hope that it will remain aesthetically the same even after years, that structurally it will not suffer damage, that something does not compromise 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 to know what will happen in a few years, except by relying on personal experience, predictions and opinions, more or less truthful and reliable.
Fortunately, in the field of industrial painting, this aspect can be precisely defined, leaving little room for doubts and misunderstandings. It is something sure, of course, which in some ways reassures about some aspects related to surface treatments. Let’s find out what the Accelerated Weathering Test is and why it is often fundamental in the decision-making and design phases related to painting.
“Seeing into the future” is perhaps the best way to describe how the test works.
The accelerated aging 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 a few days.
It is an aging simulation with which a special instrument subjects the selected materials to alternating cycles of radiation with special UV lamps and humidity, as well as controlled high temperatures.
It is an extremely useful test to understand the resistance of a surface treatment against time and external agents, to evaluate its effectiveness in the long term.
One of the most interesting aspects of this test is the so-called “irradiation 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 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 tests, a key factor for any test, so that a standard can be defined.
The standard governing this test is ISO 16474.
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