Testing
We select and conduct tests that best suit your needs and those of your product, utilizing our wide range of equipment to ensure its quality and safety.
Objective. To know how the material will behave in the real environment.
Our client, a large manufacturer in the mobility sector, needs to know how the new materials to be incorporated into their vehicle will behave in a real environment. It is very important to be able to replicate the most common uses and how each type of material ages. The goal is to ensure its quality throughout the vehicle’s lifetime.
Solution. Internal customer and ISO testing
The first step was to agree with the client on the aging tests to be performed on each material depending on the use to be given to it in the vehicle. A work methodology was defined for each material. We specified the test to be used in each case. In some materials ISO standards would be used, in other cases internal standards of our client and in others it was necessary to design ad-hoc tests to better represent the real use that was going to be given to the material.
For the abrasion aging tests we used a TABER type abrasion tester that allows us to standardize pressure, type of abrasive agent and number of cycles.
For the sun-aging tests, we used UV exposure equipment combined with condensation. In this case we measured the color before and after the UV test and checked that the ∆E (color difference) was within our customer’s standards.
For anti-graffiti tests we used our customer’s internal standards. In the case of aging tests due to the use of cleaning products, an ad-hoc test was defined that represented actual use. Real stains and cleaners were used and colorimetry measurements were taken before and after.
In this project it was very important to document the tests through images, in addition to the numerical data. In the presentation of the results, we also proposed alternatives for the materials that did not pass any of the tests to facilitate the improvement process for our client.
