Light ageing test for polypropylene nonwovens - Xenon lamp aging tester

The Xenon lamp aging tester is an artificially accelerated tester, developed and manufactured by Standard Group (Hong Kong) Limited, with high cost performance and after-sales service.

1. Natural Aging

The natural aging evaluation method is to expose the sample to outdoor natural conditions for a specified time, and use natural environmental conditions, including sunlight, temperature difference between day and night, rain and air, to conduct aging tests on it, and evaluate its optical properties, mechanical properties and other related properties. Variety. The natural aging test is close to the actual use of the material, and the obtained weather resistance is relatively reliable.

In the last century, the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, and European developed countries successively established exposure fields for polymer materials. my country also established exposure fields in Guangzhou and Hainan Island in the early 1960s to study the weather resistance of polymer materials. test. At present, the natural aging performance test standard of polypropylene nonwoven fabrics in my country mainly adopts GB/T 3681-2011 "Exposure test methods for natural sunlight aging of plastics, sunlight aging after glass filtration, and Fresnel mirror accelerated sunlight aging", There are three environmental conditions in the standard, and the experimental conditions can be selected according to the actual use situation, which has certain pertinence, but there are too many unstable factors, such as climate change, geographical location difference, etc., and the time is relatively long.

Since the natural environmental conditions in the natural aging test are uncontrollable, it is difficult to guarantee the reproducibility and consistency of the test, so this method is mostly used on specific products for special purposes, and is usually carried out near the corresponding actual use site Testing, such as durable geotextiles used in large-scale engineering projects, degradable nonwovens used in specific environments, etc.

2. Artificial accelerated aging

The artificial accelerated aging evaluation method is to use laboratory light source (xenon arc lamp, fluorescent ultraviolet lamp or open carbon arc lamp) to simulate the use conditions of materials, so that the samples are exposed to controlled temperature and humidity for a specified time, and then evaluate the changes in their optical properties, mechanical properties and other related properties.

At present, the artificial accelerated aging performance test standards of polypropylene nonwovens in China mainly include GB/T 16422 "Plastics -- Methods of exposure to laboratory light sources" series standards, which are equivalent to ISO 4892 "Plastics -- Methods of exposure to laboratory light sources" series standards. The standard is "accelerated" and "strengthened" For its characteristics, the general rule of the standard clearly states that the test results can only be used to compare the relative durability of exposed materials in a certain environment, and cannot be used to determine the relative durability of the same material in different environments. Therefore, when testing its light aging performance, the test conditions and test cycle are usually set according to the requirements of the product user, and the product performance is measured by comparing the performance with the control sample. GB/T 16422 series of standards include three test methods for accelerated aging of xenon arc lamp, fluorescent ultraviolet lamp and open carbon arc lamp, which can simulate the lighting conditions under various conditions of use, with controllable conditions, shorter time, more reliable reproducibility and consistency, and are applicable to most products.

The natural aging and artificial accelerated aging evaluation methods have their own advantages and disadvantages: the natural aging test is closer to the actual use, and the evaluation of the light aging performance of products for specific purposes is more reliable; The artificial accelerated aging test conditions are controllable, which can realize the comparison of light aging performance of various products at different times, and the results have good reproducibility and reproducibility. Due to different test conditions, the natural aging results and artificial accelerated aging results of the same sample are not comparable