Accelerated Weathering Testing
Our Weathering Laboratory
Determining how a material or product will react to normal or extreme weathering is important. It gives your team the data needed to modify your design or continue with the existing build.
Our accelerated weathering test methods at VTEC Laboratories give you detailed information on your products' response to nature’s forces.
With actionable analysis from our weatherability test, your team will have the necessary data to develop performance-driven products. Contact VTEC Laboratories today to learn more.
What Is Accelerated Weathering Testing?
Weathering is a material or product’s adverse response to the Earth’s climate conditions. Solar rays, excessive humidity and extreme temperatures often cause early and complete product failures.
That’s especially prevalent where products weren’t designed with materials suitable for weathering conditions they experience. It’s also a result of manufacturers' failure to test their products under real or simulated conditions.
There’s no substitute for placing products in a real climatic environment and observing how they perform. However, testing in an open weather environment is a time-consuming process.
Realistic tests taking months or years aren’t cost-effective. It’s far more efficient to accelerate the process by testing in a laboratory-controlled, simulated weather environment.
The best weather testing technology on today’s market is called accelerated weathering testing.
This type of testing, which is normally done in a weathering laboratory, lets you understand how your products respond to certain weather conditions. That can be regular weathering under normal conditions or seasonal fluctuations, including heavy storms and natural disasters.
By accelerating your weathering testing and regulating it in simulated conditions, you essentially get the same climate-response data but in a much quicker time. You’ll have insight into how your products react to light, rain, heat, cold and other factors over specific periods.
How Does This Type of Test Help You?
Nature’s primary weather forces are sunlight, ozone, moisture and temperature. Secondary forces include biological phenomena, sand, salt and air pollutants like chemicals and acid rain.
Combined, these weather factors take a toll on outdoor pieces. Accelerated Weathering testing before your manufacturing process is excellent insurance against premature and unexpected product failure.
This is why it is important to determine how products and their materials respond to normal and extreme weathering. Testing is a vital part of making sure your product’s materials are suitable for the environment they’re destined for.
Weathering testing provides your team with essential data that influences how you move forward. That data allows you to modify your design or continue with the existing build.
When the military deploys its systems in extreme weather conditions, they first test their durability at VTEC Laboratories’ weathering laboratory. Valuable data from accelerated weathering testing lets your company revise product design if it’s not withstanding certain weather conditions.
That might be by increasing its structural strength or decreasing its water penetration. Whether you build for residential applications or commercial purposes, weathering testing ensures your products are properly engineered to withstand every element they’re likely to find.
By controlling parameters and simulating natural weather conditions in our test chambers, VTEC Laboratories significantly accelerates product testing time.
Instead of taking months or years to evaluate performance and provide meaningful data, our accelerated weathering testing provides data in as little as a two-week turnaround. Some of these testing conditions simulated in the test lab include:
- Simulated UV exposure testing
- Water exposure through simulated rain, condensation and mist
- Temperature fluctuations from extreme heat and cold
- Salt and corrosion conditions
The accelerated testing offers manufacturers significant benefits, helping them anticipate potential product failures before real-world exposure. While no test can perfectly replicate every environmental condition, laboratory simulations provide highly accurate data to identify weaknesses early.
Our team at the weathering laboratory provides temperature-controlled analysis during this accelerated weathering testing. We evaluate critical factors such as weathering due to UV radiation, UV exposure and water spray. The insights from accelerated UV testing and others allow research and design teams to refine products before full-scale production.
By condensing years of weather exposure into a short testing period, accelerated weathering allows manufacturers to conduct multiple tests efficiently. This is especially crucial for industries with strict quality requirements, such as protective coatings, paints and varnishes. Additionally, weathering tests establish a verifiable audit trail that safeguards manufacturers against potential complaints or litigation.
For forward-thinking manufacturers, accelerated weathering testing isn’t just a cost; it’s an investment in reliability. After all, the true expense lies in skipping testing and facing unexpected failures.
Testing by Industry
At VTEC Laboratories, we offer weathering testing for many industries, including:
Our ISO-accredited facility adapts to more than 20 different test standards of leading agencies. We focus on the standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), which are in-depth and encompass a range of materials, like plastics, and several weather factors, such as humidity, water and light.
Types of Accelerated Weathering Testing
There are three distinct weathering testing types. Each technique has its specific applications, along with pros and cons and whether or not they require a weathering laboratory.
The best option for a particular product depends on the objective, the time allotted, and how detailed the data needs to be. Let’s discuss the three tests for weathering.
Natural Weathering
This weathering testing process is also called static weathering. It’s the simplest form and relies on products being exposed directly to nature’s forces.
Often, products are placed in racks and left out in the elements where they’re bombarded by solar rays, pelted by rain, baked in the sun and frozen in the cold.
Unlike accelerated weathering testing, natural weathering is the most authentic testing form because it’s a real-world and real-time process. Although it gives the truest data, the time frame makes it unsuitable for most manufacturers’ production schedules.
Naturally-Accelerated Weathering
Accelerated natural weathering also involves direct exposure to nature. Products experience direct sun, high humidity and extreme temperatures that they’d receive once put into consumer end-use.
However, the duration or length of exposure is significantly less than what it takes during natural weathering testing. That’s because in accelerated weathering testing, technicians use assisting devices to accelerate weathering time. Some of these ways include:
- Water immersion to simulate wet environments
- Artificial heat or cold to create temperature fluctuations
- Adding salt or chlorine to induce corrosion.
Laboratory-Accelerated Weathering
Most weathering testing today occurs inside laboratories. In a weathering laboratory, engineers and scientists use sophisticated equipment to create accurate climatic conditions that products are destined for after production.
Specially designed weathering chambers mimic the light, temperature and humidity that exist in real environments. These climate-controlled conditions accelerate weathering at a profound rate.
In facilities like VTEC Laboratories’, realistic weathering conditions accurately mimic actual factors found in nature. This makes accelerated weathering testing possible since laboratory settings considerably reduce testing time while delivering meaningful data that predicts a product's chance of success or failure once introduced to the field.
Because laboratory analysis is an artificial process, it’s mandatory to have test standards for weathering testing.
Various procedures for accelerated weathering testing include exposure of non-metallic materials to simulate natural conditions. That can involve friction testing, rubber deterioration or plastic breakdown under solar radiation.
As stated earlier, VTEC Laboratories strictly adheres to weathering testing standards set forth by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).
This is because exposure tests that meet ASTM test standards are valid, reliable and recognized by every leading industry involved in weathering tests.
You can depend on these ASTM standards for in-depth analysis across a range of materials and a wide scope of climatic simulations, even in the cases of accelerated weathering testing.
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
Since 1898, the American Society for Testing and Materials has set the bar for product evaluation. The ASTM is a world leader in developing valid processes in over 12,000 applications.
It has testing standards that are defined in directives identified by numeric prefixes followed by a clear written title identifying the subject matter. By adhering to these standards, VTEC Laboratories accurately recreates synthetic conditions closely resembling what products experience under extreme natural conditions.
That might be using vulcanized rubber test standards or employing high-tech equipment like a carbon-arc light apparatus, a fluorescent ultraviolet (UV) lamp apparatus or a xenon arc light during accelerated weathering testing.
VTEC Laboratories depends on the ASTM’s leadership and global technical expertise for weathering testing standards and technical content development.
Using the ASTM’s advanced information technology (IT) infrastructure, VTEC Laboratories has access to the latest testing methods, classifications, specifications, guides and practices that support American business to create top-quality products.
At our weathering laboratory, we offer weathering testing services for many industries, including aerospace, automotive, construction, government, military, oil and gas, textiles, manufacturing, chemicals, plastics and railroads. Typical products that undergo accelerated weathering testing are plastics and rubber. Regardless of material composition, each test follows rigorous steps to ensure a valid assessment.
Some of the testing standards we offer are ASTM D573, ASTM D750, ASTM D1149, ASTM D2126, ASTM G154 and ASTM G155. Here is a detailed look at our most popular ASTM weathering tests:
ASTM D573
Standard Test Method for Rubber — Deterioration in an Air Oven
Rubber products need to resist physical property deterioration caused by thermal aging and oxidation. This test method outlines how to assess rubber’s performance characteristics under specified accelerated conditions. Annex A1 in the directive has important information on precision testing and accelerating test age evaluation.
This accelerated weathering testing procedure determines elevated temperature influence on vulcanized rubber’s physical properties, but since this is a highly varied substance, ASTM D573 testing may not give an exact correlation with field service performance.
Other rubber compounds evaluate test results on a weathering laboratory comparison basis. ASTM D573 standards refer to documents that detail:
- Sample preparation for physically testing rubber compounds
- Test methods for vulcanized rubber and thermoplastic elastomer tension
- Materials, equipment and procedures for testing vulcanized rubber sheets
- Practice for evaluating natural rubber
- Test methods for evaluating styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)
ASTM D750
Standard Practice for Rubber Deterioration Using Artificial Weathering Apparatus
In accelerated weathering and other testing methods, this ASTM directive describes standard practices for testing rubber deterioration using artificial instruments that recreate major natural factors like solar rays, heat and moisture.
Instruments include a fluorescent ultraviolet light source, a xenon-arc light source, an enclosed carbon-arc light source and an open-flame carbon-arc light source. The purpose is to accelerate natural forces and put a strain on rubber products held in a jig.
Here, resistance to amplified stresses is the main testing criterion.
The resistance of rubber products to accelerated forces is measured by a percentage decrease in tensile strength and the elongation breaking point.
A secondary criterion during accelerated weathering testing or other methods is observing the extent of surface cracking or crazing on the rubber product. ASTM D750 standards refer to documents that detail:
- Test methods for thermoplastic elastomer tension and vulcanized rubber
- Best practices for rubber material testing including equipment and mixing
- Precise evaluation of test methods in the rubber and carbon industries
- Exposing non-metallic materials to laboratory light acceleration devices
- Preparing vulcanized rubber pieces in a weathering laboratory or any other setting for test purpose
ASTM D1149
Standard Test Methods for Rubber Deterioration — Cracking in an Ozone Controlled Environment
Ozone is destructive to both natural and synthetic rubber. Both rubber forms break down when exposed to ozone. That can seriously reduce a product’s service life unless treated accordingly.
The ASTM D1149 directive outlines procedures for testing rubber products’ resistance degree. It is judged on cracks on rubber surfaces and rated according to magnitude and appearance.
Test methods amplify light sensitivity through accelerated time and exposure intensity. ASTM D1149 standards refer to documents that detail:
- Rubber deterioration and surface cracking test methods for indoor ozone
- Outdoor ozone effects on surface cracks and rubber deterioration
- Best practices and standard conditions for rubber deterioration/cracking
- Testing rubber through dynamic ozone cracking in a chamber
- Rubber property testing for extension cycling fatigue
ASTM D2126
Standard Test Method for Response of Rigid Cellular Plastics to Thermal and Humid Aging
Rigid cellular plastics have a wide range of potential uses, which is why methods like accelerated weathering testing are important.
ASTM D2126 prescribes detailed testing procedures for rigid plastics but cautions that test applications must be based on the product’s intended use. Plastics are notably sensitive to heat, light and moisture.
The standard test method for rigid cellular plastic products recommends a variety of conditions, depending on the desired exposure a product is likely to receive.
Tested plastic products have various temperatures and humidity levels introduced in weathering laboratory settings. Primarily, technicians record dimension changes occurring in stressed products. ASTM D2126 standards refer to documents that detail::
- Terminology relating to plastics
- Test methods for evaluating plastic responses under thermal and humid aging
- ISO standards for rigid-testing cellular plastics
- ANSI standards for rigid cell plastic testing
- ISC documents for aging on cellular plastics and elastomers
ASTM G154
Standard Practice for Operating Fluorescent Ultraviolet (UV) Lamp Apparatus for Exposure of Non-Metallic Materials
This is one of the most common accelerated weathering testing practices in the industry. It involves subjecting products to intensified fluorescent ultraviolet light conditions for varying durations. G154 testing is also done in conjunction with increasing and decreasing moisture levels.
Because of the light spectrum found in fluorescent ultraviolet lights, this test is mostly done on products intended for low-light conditions such as indoor or shaded applications. Fluorescent ultraviolet weathering testing includes both UVA and UVB light spectrums. ASTM G154 standards refer to documents that detail:
- Calculating the property retention index of plastics
- Guide to conducting an interlaboratory study for precision test methods
- Terminology relating to artificial or accelerated weathering testing on non-metallic materials
- Practices for exposing non-metallic materials to weathering laboratory light sources
- Reference tables for solar ultraviolet spectral distribution
ASTM G155
Standard Practice for Operating Xenon Arc Light Apparatus for Exposure of Non-Metallic Materials
Xenon arc light apparatus exposures perform best on materials destined for use in outdoor, bright light applications.
ASTM G155 weathering test guidelines govern xenon arc lighting that’s similar to direct sunlight. Amplification with xenon arc lighting accelerates product testing time in a lab setting more than natural light conditions allow.
Many commercial and industrial products specify weather testing that specifically involves G155 xenon arc lighting conditions.
Accelerated weathering testing with xenon arc lights normally includes repetitive cycles of light and moisture under controlled artificial environments. ASTM G155 standards refer to documents that detail:
- Best practices for interlaboratory testing of paint and related materials
- Conducting interlaboratory studies to determine test model precision
- Calculating plastic property retention indexes
- Practices for operating light-exposure apparatuses with moisture exposure
- Exposing non-metallic materials in accelerated test devices using laboratory light
Other Common Weathering Tests that VTEC Laboratories Performs
Besides weather testing for solar radiation effects, moisture resistance and temperature sensitivity, many vulnerable products can be tested for other environmental threats.
At our weathering laboratory, we specialize in accelerated weathering testing and other weathering tests as per ASTM directives for light, humidity and temperature, but we do additional custom weather testing for these natural exposures:
- Salt spray and chlorine corrosion
- Sand and mineral abrasion
- Airborne pollutants
- Biological hazards
- Acid rain
- Thermal shock
- Vibration impact
Contact VTEC Laboratories
Since 1982, VTEC Laboratories has earned an international reputation for being a leader in industrial and commercial product test services. This includes a full-service accelerated weathering testing source.
We’re a multifunctional company with a wide range of testing abilities, including listing, labeling and follow-up inspection services.
Weathering testing is a primary service we’re proud to offer. As an ASTM-compliant testing service, we adhere to the highest standards at our weathering laboratory to ensure you receive valid data you can rely on — every test and every time. We also do custom work for private businesses, government institutions and military applications.
When you collaborate with VTEC Laboratories, you benefit from our versatile skill sets, international reach and personal approach. Contact us today for the accelerated weathering testing you’re looking for. You can reach us online or call us at 718-542-8248.
