Natural Outdoor Weathering & Real-World Exposure Services
While modern accelerated laboratory testers simulate specific environmental variables with exceptional accuracy, no artificial validation program is complete without true environmental validation. Real-world atmospheric factors—such as shifting diurnal cycles, localized pollution, humidity levels, and sudden thermal shocks—create multi-variable degradation interactions that can only be verified outdoors.
Partnering with the Atlas Weathering Services Group, Rycobel provides materials engineers with direct access to the world’s most comprehensive network of outdoor weathering testing infrastructure. Ensure long-term reliability and eliminate costly product liability issues by evaluating your coatings, polymers, textiles, and components under exact real-world degradation pathways.
Standardized Benchmark Climates for Global Material Validation
Testing a material's environmental resistance across every local microclimate is structurally impractical. Therefore, global testing protocols isolate specific geographical regions known as benchmark climates. These areas exhibit continuous, maximum environmental severity for specific degradation profiles.
Depending on your product's target market, testing specimens are deployed across specialized global facilities, primarily anchored by two foundational environments:
Subtropical Exposure (Southern Florida): Characterized by high-intensity annual solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation, severe ambient heat, persistent high humidity, and heavy seasonal rainfall. This climate is critical for evaluating moisture ingress, blistering, corrosion, and color fading in exterior paints and automotive components.
Arid Desert Exposure (Arizona): Characterized by maximum levels of total solar energy, minimal atmospheric moisture, and extreme temperature fluctuations between day and night. This environment provides the ultimate baseline for tracking thermal expansion cracking, embrittlement, and rapid polymer degradation.
Accelerated Natural Weathering via EMMAQUA Technology
For engineering teams requiring fast decision-making data without sacrificing real-world spectral correlation, the Atlas EMMAQUA (Equatorial Mount with Mirrors for Acceleration) system is the global standard.
This device bridges the gap between laboratory testing and open-air static exposure:
- True Solar Spectrum Match: Rather than utilizing artificial xenon or fluorescent bulbs, EMMAQUA targets raw, unaltered daylight, reflecting the complete solar spectrum directly onto your test specimens.
- Intense Sunlight Concentration: Utilizing 10 highly reflective, specifically engineered glass mirrors, the platform concentrates natural solar energy onto the target area with an equivalent intensity of up to eight suns.
- Active Solar Tracking: The system relies on a precision dual-axis motorized mount that actively tracks the sun from morning to evening, ensuring the specimens continuously receive the maximum possible level of perpendicular solar radiation.
Natural Weathering Testing FAQs
Q: Why should an engineering team perform natural weathering if they already use accelerated laboratory test chambers? A: No laboratory chamber can completely replicate the hyper-complex, synergistic interactions of natural outdoor environments—such as trace industrial pollutants, biological growths, varying dew durations, and real-world thermal shifts. Natural weathering exposure provides the final, non-negotiable real-world validation required to eliminate liability failures and guarantee data accuracy before full-scale commercialization.
Q: What materials are most susceptible to degradation during outdoor weathering? A: Different material classes respond aggressively to specific climatic stressors. For instance, polymers and architectural coatings are highly vulnerable to solar UV radiation and high ambient heat, which cause molecular chain scission, cracking, and fading. Conversely, structural metals and automotive chassis components are primarily degraded by atmospheric moisture, industrial salt spray, and condensation cycles that trigger advanced oxidation and rust.
Q: How extensive is the global outdoor testing network offered by Atlas through Rycobel? A: Through our direct collaboration with the Atlas Weathering Services Group, Rycobel offers materials testers access to a global network of more than 23 dedicated outdoor testing facilities worldwide. This network allows you to test concurrently across tropical, desert, marine, sub-arctic, and industrial microclimates to ensure absolute regional product compliance.