IMPROVEMENTS IN SIMULATING NATURAL SUNLIGHT WITHIN ARTIFICIAL WEATHERING DEVICES

摘要

Due to the need for more rapid evaluations and tighter control of test conditions, many coatings engineers turn to accelerated testing devices with artificial light sources over outdoor exposure to test the resistance of materials to weathering. While the novice weathering experimenter in a testing laboratory might only be concerned with the quantity of light energy deposited on their specimens, it is the "quality" of the light source (when compared with natural sunlight) that determines the potential correlation with natural, outdoor exposures. In this paper, spectral power distribution graphs representing both full spectrum and short wavelength UV ranges will be discussed. This data will highlight new breakthroughs in filtering technology that now replicate natural sunlight in the short wavelength UV more closely than ever before in commercially available xenon-arc weathering instruments.