A UV Chamber (or UV Test Chamber or UV Accelerated Weathering Tester) is an advanced lab-testing device designed to measure the resistance of materials to environmental factors like sunlight, heat, and humidity.

This means that instead of waiting for months or even years to check the wear and tear of a certain material outdoors, the UV chamber reproduces months or years of such effects in days or weeks.

Why is a UV Chamber Used?

Ultraviolet rays contained in sunlight cause deterioration through the disintegration of the molecular structure of materials. The UV stability testing machine helps determine:

• Discoloration: To verify whether dyed, printed, or painted items lose their color under light exposure.
• Physical Degradation Test: This test checks for deterioration of plastic, polymer, or rubber to check if they have become brittle, cracked, chalked, or lost their tensile strength.
• Yellowing: This test examines if white or clear substances become yellow.

How It Simulates Environmental Weathering

An effective UV resistant testing environment does not merely radiate light but also replicates the complete process of weathering outdoors using three major methods:

1. UV Radiation (Artificial Sunlight)

The equipment uses fluorescent UV lamps, which come in two major types:

• UVA-340 Lamps: The lamps generate an extremely accurate simulation of the short wave solar radiation ranging from 365 nm all the way down to the solar cut-off point of 295 nm. These lamps are ideal for simulating real life exposure of plastics, textile material, and paints to direct sunlight.
• UVB-313 Lamps: The lamps produce short wave ultraviolet radiation, which is much more intense than anything you can find in nature on earth.

2. Condensation (Dew/Moisture Simulation)

Outdoors in nature, substances stay wet due to morning dew for a period of 15 hours a day. In a UV chamber, this is replicated by conducting a condensation process at high temperatures. The water in the lower part of the UV chamber is heated into vapor, which continuously condenses onto the surfaces of the samples below.

3. Temperature Control

Photochemical reactions occur rapidly at high temperatures. UV Chambers have digital controls to increase the temperature of the chamber air in both UV illumination stage (temperature range of 50°C – 70°C) and condensation stage (temperature range of 40°C – 50°C).