Plastic materials began to spread in the middle of the last century and in a short time they became a constant presence in our everyday life. Plastic materials are cheap and can be used in the most disparate ways but, for this very reason, they are subjected to a rigorous series of tests in a climatic chamber that confirms their safety and their homologation to international standards.
In this article, we will see the general tests conducted on plastic materials through a climatic chamber and, in particular, those with UV lamps.
General Climate Tests on Plastic Materials in the Climate Chamber
It is important to discuss in advance the general climatic tests on plastics because, as we will see, they play an important role in tests with UV lamps.
General climate tests for plastic materials are regulated by ISO 4611: 2008, a norm of the International Organization for Standardization, the most important standardization institution for materials globally.
The main tests to be conducted on plastic materials are exposure to damp heat, water spray and salt mist.
These tests will then determine if there has been a variation in the mass, size, appearance and physical properties of the sample under examination.
Perform
Climate Stress
Discover the new series of Climate Chambers for controlled climate testing
Climatic chamber with Xenon-Arc UV lamps
The climatic chambers can be equipped with xenon-arc lamps capable of emitting UV rays to perform a series of tests on materials, including plastic ones.
Xenon arc lamps were invented in the mid-twentieth century and can release a kind of light very similar to the spectrum of sunlight, to simulate the effects of prolonged exposure to solar radiation.
For a complete review on climatic chambers equipped with xenon-arc lamps and on all possible uses, please refer to our previous article on the subject.
Climate Tests on Plastic Materials with UV Lamps in the Climatic Chamber
As common experience suggests, prolonged exposure to sunlight is one of the first enemies of plastic materials that tend to discolor and even deform.
For this reason, the approval of a product or a plastic material cannot be separated from an accurate test in a climatic chamber equipped with UV lamps which certifies the resistance of the sample in question.
The ISO 4892-2: 2013 standard contains the guidelines for UV tests on plastic materials in a climatic chamber which must be conducted together with the aforementioned tests for damp heat in order to accurately simulate the environmental conditions in which the material will be found.
With special glasses, it is also possible to reproduce the exposure to sunlight filtered through the windows.
You cannot find the ideal chamber for your test?
Create your own environment, according to any test requirement
The FDM Climatic Chamber with UV Lamps for tests on plastic materials
The FDM climatic chambers can be equipped with a lighting system with xenon lamps to conduct tests on plastic materials.
The standard FDM climatic chamber includes the following accessories, which all together make up the configuration of the FDM environmental chamber with xenon lighting:
- Air temperature sensor
- Relative humidity sensor
- Black standard thermometer or black panel thermometer
- Xenon arc lamps
- Sunlight filter
- Window glass filter
For further needs, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Would you like to receive a quote or do you have questions about the product?
Contact us to receive more information about this Product.