Intertek provides accellerated aging testing of polymers and plastics. Intertek laboratories can test the resistance of your products against chemicals, temperature, repeated sterilization or UV/ Xenon exposure.

The principle of aging studies is exposure of products under defined conditions to heat, UV, chemicals etc. and determination of critical properties before and after exposure. Intertek applies the following standards for aging testing:

• ASTM D1693, Environmental Stress Cracking Resistance (ESCR) tests
• ASTM D573, Effects of elevated temperatures on properties of plastics by deterioration in air oven
• ASTM D4329, ASTM D 4587, Accelerated Weathering by QUV
• ISO 4892, SAE J2020, Accelerated Weathering by QUV
• ASTM D 2565, ASTM D4459, ASTM G155, ISO 4892, SAE J1885, SAE J1960 , Weathering tests
• ASTM D2565, Xenon-Arc Exposure of Plastics Intended for Indoor or Outdoor Applications
• D4459, Impact resistance of polyvinyl chloride (pvc) rigid profiles

Due to great diversity in products and the use and life cycle of these products, a different approach might be required. Therefore the majority of the aging tests follow customized procedures.

Examples of aging testing

• A manufacturer of seals for hydraulic systems was planning to change the base material from natural rubber to EPDM. Aging studies showed that in this particular case the EPDM –seals performed equally well compared to the natural rubber seals.
• Because of the growing market for bio-fuels a supplier of fuel-tanks wanted to perform on his products comparable resistance tests against standard fuels and bio-fuels.
• A large bank company wanted to predict the lifetime of a device which is used to check the authenticity of banknotes. The lifetime was calculated based on the results of accelerated UV-aging followed by impact tests.
• The plastic housing of a filter system used to clean cooling liquids applied in car air-conditioners showed cracking and broke down just after a short period of time. Simulation of the filtering process showed that the used base-material was not resistance to cooling liquids.
• A dentist had to replace syringes used in dental surgeries frequently because the mechanical integrity diminished by repeated sterilization. It was shown that by changing the composition of the base material the lifetime of the syringes could be increased.

Contact and Information

Should you wish to receive more information on this subject, please contact one of our specialists at Intertek by phone: +31 46 476 27 13 or send us an email.