Summary of Long-Term Testing Standards of Thermoplastics for Polymer Material Selection

Long-Term Testing Standards of Thermoplastics for Polymer Material Selection

Hello and welcome back to a new post. As a continuation of the blog post Summary of Testing Standards for Polymer Material Selection we discuss today the topic of long-term testing standards for polymer material selection. 

Environmental effects such as temperature, different chemicals, radiation, and time can impact the performance of your plastic product. Irreversible changes are the result and therefore proper preparing by long-term testing during material selection will decrease the chances of part failure under environmental influence. 

What are some helpful long-term tests?

Following are the most helpful long-term tests for thermoplastics listed and in Table 1 they are summarized.

Summary of Long-Term Testing Standards for Thermoplastics

1) Immersion test in different media (water, water-glycol, aromatics, alcohols, ketones, acids, bases) for 1,000 - 3,000 hours at room temperature and elevated temperature; standard tensile bars; checking mechanical properties before and after; 

2) Heat aging test at different temperatures for 1,000 -3,000 hours;  standard tensile bars; checking mechanical properties before and after; supportive standard: ASTM D3045;

3) Creep test according EN ISO 899

4) Tensile Fatigue test according ASTM D3479

5) Thermal Index test according IEC60216 and ISO-527-1/-2 (5,000 hours)

6) Relative Thermal Index according UL 746B

7) Outdoor suitability test according UL 746C

8) Automotive test according ISO 16750

9) Fatigue performance according ASTM D638

Results of the aforementioned tests help to better decide on the suitability of the one or other grade to select for your application. 

Thanks for reading and #findoutaboutplastics

Greetings, 

Herwig 

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Literature:

[1] V. Shah: Handbook of Plastics Testing and Failure Analysis, Wiley