Environmental Aging Test
How can we determine if a laminated wall will hold up year after year?
Environmental Aging Test: What is it? Why do we do it? What does it tell us?
Structures like RVs and trailers are expected to last for many years. When these units are made with laminated walls, it is critical that the walls and the bonds keeping them together remain intact through harsh conditions and seasonal cycles. The Environmental Aging Test is an accelerated test intended to simulate extreme weather changes, and stress materials and their glue bonds to their maximum. Like the Sun Load Test, this will push beyond the limits that a structure would usually see under normal (ambient) conditions.
Changes in temperature and humidity affect almost all materials as mentioned on our Temperature and Humidity Resistance page. So how does Azdel and its bonds hold up?
In a sealed chamber, samples are subjected to set intervals of conditions ranging from -40°C (-40°F) to 100°C (212°F), and from dry air to 95% humidity. This is repeated a set number of times.
We can clearly observe that the expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam has shrunk from the excessive heat. In doing so, the skin was pulled around the aluminum tube (wall stud).
The strong bond between the FRP and Azdel substrate, as well as that of the Azdel and foam, forced this reshaping.
Had the bond weakened significantly, the skin would have pulled apart from the foam and left noticeable gaps in the wall.
To the naked eye, the glue did its job, but we must test further to be sure.
To finish this test we use advanced testing equipment to confirm the bonds have remained intact. Click here to visit our Flat-Wise Tensile Test page to learn more.