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This paper provides an overview of extensive research conducted by the Vinyl Siding Institute (VSI) on the development of new test methods for exterior plastic building products. The purpose of the VSI study was to develop an accelerated testing pro ...

Reciprocity is the notion that if you increase irradiance in a weathering test, you can decrease your exposure time by a reciprocal amount and still get the same results. Said another way, reciprocity states that the amount of degradation in a weathe...

The QUV®/cw photostability tester provides a standard cool white fluorescent test chamber that meets ANSI, ASTM and ISO test methods for indoor photostability testing.Many products intended for home, office, and commercial environments have never bee...

For many applications it is important to measure how well plastics parts resist degradation and colour change when exposed to temperature changes, moisture, and light – especially ultraviolet (UV) light. Examples include building materials, automotiv...

Understanding how to best protect a plastic part from the effects of weathering needs to include an analysis of several important factors. It should take account of the polymer type, colour and additives. An estimation of what the actual exposure wil...

The basic stresses in weathering are known and quantified. The time a material is stressed and the temperature during UV and water stresses are the primary variables in natural weathering. Reproducing them exactly in the laboratory can provide accele...

Instrumental color (i.e. L*A*B*) and optical density measurements were performed on coated and uncoated papers printed with water based inkjet inks using continuous binary array inkjet equipment. Lightfastness tests were performed in a QUV test chamb...

Sunlight is an important cause of damage to materials exposed outdoors. The shorter the wavelength of sunlight, the greater the damage. The shortest wavelengths in sunlight are the ultraviolet. Although ultraviolet light makes up only about 5% of the...

Outdoor exposure racks and accelerated chambers are the two main methods for testing materials for weathering durability. In the fast paced current world, time constraints have determined that outdoor weathering exposures take too long to provide the...

How can you know whether an ink will remain fade resistant under the variety of lighting conditions that it may encounter during its service life? What is the cost of product failure? What is the price/performance trade-off between affordability and ...