Why Test?
Exterior paints and coatings are subject to the damaging forces of nature, including sunlight, heat, and moisture. Customers expect excellent long-term durability against the elements.
Will your paints last outdoors? For how long? Do your new environmentally-friendly, low-VOC formulations meet your customers' performance expectations? Has something changed in your process that might affect your product's long term durability? Don't guess when you can test.
The paint and coatings industry is extremely diverse. Q-Lab serves thousands of customers in hundreds of sub-markets, including:
- Architectural coatings
- Industrial coatings
- Automotive coatings
- Exterior stains and varnishes
- Coil coatings
- Powder coatings
- Low-VOC coatings
- Marine coatings
- Wood coatings
- Roof coatings
- Cool and IR-reflective coatings
- Additives
- Pigments
The QUV accelerated weathering tester is the weathering device relied on most by the coatings industry because of its realistic simulation of the critical short-wave UV portion of sunlight, elevated temperatures, and aggressive moisture functions. This is why the QUV is "The World's Most Widely-Used Weathering Tester." QCT condensation testers are also used by many paints and coatings companies to test for water resistance.
For some coatings applications, simulating the full sunlight spectrum is important, making the Q-SUN xenon test chamber another popular choice. In addition to its accurate sunlight simulation, Q-SUN testers are also available with a versatile, easy-to-use flat specimen tray for three-dimensional specimens.
Our Exposure Testing Services for Paints and Coatings
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. In fact, outdoor testing is so important that large coatings manufacturers began testing in South Florida and Arizona many decades ago and continue to test there today. No weathering program is complete without it.
Accelerated Laboratory Weathering
Accelerated laboratory weathering testing is an efficient and effective way to evaluate the durability of paints and coatings, designed to accelerate your weathering testing process to provide you with accurate and reliable answers.
Q-Lab's accelerated weathering testers simulate the primary weathering & lightfastness conditions that degrade paints and coatings, including:
- Color Change & Fading
- Cracking
- Erosion
- Peeling & Delamination
- Gloss Loss
- Chalking
- Blistering
A variety of international test standards are used to evaluate paints and coatings’ 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 Paints and Coatings
Corrosion Testing
Coatings on metals must also withstand the forces of corrosion, and 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 Natural Solar Concentrator
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. This testing is ideally-suited to very durable protective materials like coil coatings and powder coatings.