UV irradiation.

Climate change makes it increasingly important to prove the UV resistance of plastics and coatings. We put the longevity of your materials and products to the test and adapt the climatic conditions to your individual requirements.

The standard describes the artificial irradiation or weathering in devices (plastics – methods of exposure to laboratory light sources – part 2: xenon arc lamps). The assessment of the aging of the samples after irradiation is carried out, for example, on the basis of physical technological parameters that are carried out comparatively on non-irradiated and irradiated samples, e.g. in the form of tensile tests.

In everyday parlance, UV resistance is usually taken to mean the material resistance of a component / product when stored outdoors. Naturally, storage outdoors includes, in addition to the effects of the UV component of sunlight, many other aging-relevant influences, for example the effects of wind, moisture, different temperatures, pollutants, etc. It is impossible to simulate all these influencing variables in a single laboratory test.
The rapid aging of a component / product by UV light, for example using filtered xenon arc radiation, only represents a partial aspect of the resistance to the effects of outdoor weathering and therefore only allows a rough assessment of the possible behavior under real outdoor weathering conditions.
Weathering instead of irradiation is used when the component / product is additionally sprayed with water in defined cycles during irradiation.
Reliable statements on the resistance of plastics can only be determined from outdoor weathering tests under real conditions. However, since outdoor weathering tests are quite lengthy, they are rarely carried out in practice.

DIN 75220 describes the irradiation of vehicle interior and exterior components in a solar simulation chamber. We differentiate between cycle and endurance tests, and climatic stress (humidity, temperature) can also be mapped in parallel.

The influence of solar radiation on materials, materials, products, etc. is high. The spectrum of this radiation ranges from 100 nm to 4,000 nm and is divided in UVC, UVB, UVA, visible and infrared regions.
Especially short-wave radiation has effects on most materials. Before they are released, products must therefore be exposed to solar radiation – for example in outdoor weathering systems or in special climatic chambers with integrated solar simulation. In these chambers almost all environmental conditions can be realized (sunlight, cold, heat, rain, altitude).

The test standard PV 1303 of Volkswagen AG (VW / Audi) describes the heat exposure of components (non-metallic materials) of the vehicle interior to determine the color fastness and resistance to light and heat.

DIN EN ISO 105-B06 describes the procedure for checking color fastness and aging against artificial light at high temperatures (testing with a xenon arc lamp).