Study Of A Two Year Florida Exposure Of Various Acrylated Materials And Comparison With Accelerated Test Results

INTRODUCTION

Radiation curing is used in a large number of applications. Most of these applications have
specific requirements. These requirements can be evaluated by various test methods giving
information on reactivity, hardness, abrasion-resistance, flexibility, stain resistance and many other
properties. Most of these methods are easy and not very time consuming. The outdoor behaviour
characteristics of materials cannot be measured by a fast method. Natural aging gives the best results
but this is of course too time consuming.

Florida exposure gives results in a shorter time but still years are needed to get results. When
evaluating new structures there is a need for a faster method, giving at least a good indication of
how a material will react in outdoor exposure. Therefore several accelerated tests were developed,
simulating the outdoor conditions but at high intensity.
As these methods use high intensity exposure conditions, it is possible that coatings react differently
in these tests compared to the natural aging.

We have therefore compared in this study the results of several accelerated tests with the results
obtained for the same radiation curable compositions after a two year Florida exposure. This study
links up with work done earlier (1).

The comparison between the Florida aging and the accelerated tests allows us to evaluate radiation
curable compositions based on parameters such as chemical structure, functionality, additives and
photoinitiator system.