Why Test?
Colorants and other additives that see sunlight, moisture, and heat are subject to the damaging forces of nature. Some additives are formulated specifically to protect base polymers against forces of weathering and corrosion.
Weathering testing helps answer critical questions about durability of dyes, pigments, and other color agents. Will your colorants and additives last outdoors? For how long? Does your new raw material supplier have the same quality as your previous one? Has something changed in your process that may affect your product's outdoor durability? Don’t guess when you can test.
Q‑Lab testers are used to evaluate weathering and light stability of a variety of additives and colorants, including:
- Dyes and pigments
- Anti-microbials
- UV stabilizers
- Flame retardants
- Corrosion inhibitors
- Plasticizers
Q‑Lab serves thousands of customers and dozens of industries involved with these additives and colorants, including packaging, plastics, automotive, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Accurate simulation of the short-wave ultraviolet portion of sunlight and outdoor moisture have made the QUV accelerated weathering tester the world's most widely-used weathering tester for plastics, coatings, and many of the additives that go into them. Because of its simulation of the entire sunlight spectrum and versatile, easy-to-use specimen tray, the flat-array Q‑SUN xenon test chambers are another popular choice, particularly for colorants or other additives that may be sensitive to long-wave UV and visible light.
Our Exposure Testing Services for Additives and Colorants
Florida & Arizona Natural Outdoor
While accelerated weathering chambers are a key weapon in the fight against the forces of sunlight, heat, and moisture, nothing beats the real thing: outdoor testing in one of Q‑Lab's benchmark outdoor testing facilities. Q‑Lab's South Florida and Arizona desert sites provide the ultimate test of your product's outdoor durability using natural conditions.
Accelerated Laboratory Weathering
Accelerated laboratory weathering testing is an efficient and effective way to evaluate the durability of materials, designed to accelerate your weathering testing process to provide you with accurate and reliable answers.
Q‑Lab's accelerated weathering and lightstability testers accurately reproduce dozens of potential failure modes, including:
- Yellowing
- Cracking
- Crazing
- Color change and fading
- Delamination
- Warping
- Embrittlement
- Blistering
- Tensile strength loss
- Erosion Delamination
- Adhesion loss
- Gloss loss
- Chalking
A variety of international test standards are used to evaluate colorants’ weathering resistance and light stability. Visit Q‑Lab’s Standards Search page to browse standards and find the right test for your product.
Additional Testing for Additives and Colorants
Corrosion Testing
Weathering isn't the only concern for additives and colorants manufacturers. Corrosion is responsible for billions of dollars of damage to materials and infrastructure each year. For testing against the forces of corrosion, the Q‑FOG cyclic corrosion chamber is the perfect tool for recreating realistic industrial or marine corrosion in the laboratory. When you alternate Q‑FOG and QUV tester exposures, you obtain the most reliable and realistic weathering and corrosion results available today.
Q‑TRAC Solar Concentrator Testing
The Q‑TRAC natural sunlight concentrator combines the benefits of outdoor and accelerated testing, delivering five times the annual solar energy of an exposure in South Florida.