Free Application Note

With the remarkable growth of polymers since the 1940s, there has been an ever-increasing desire to use plastics in many outdoor applications. Among these applications are those that require clear and often colorless polymers for such items as displays, signs, plastic windows, and others. 

Solar radiation, heat and moisture cause environmental ageing of all polymeric materials and products. Studies on such “weathering” effects are critical to ensure appropriate service life of polymer products.

This paper is a study by David R. Fagerburg, Fagerburg Weathering Consultants, Inc. and Northeast State Technical Community College. It was originally published in Atlas SunSpots, Volume 32, Issue 68 in Fall 2002. 

Various “tools” are used to solve a weathering problem with copolyester sheeting. These tools include laboratory and outdoor weathering, sample evaluation methods, analytical techniques, and design of experiments.