Laboratory weathering instruments simulate weather of materials ageing by accelerating the impact of sunlight, heat, and water under controlled conditions. To provide precise (= repeatable and reproducible) tests, other environmental factors like windspeed, aerosols, nighttime dark phases, or changing cloud cover are neglected.
Accelerated outdoor technology can be combined with laboratory tests and real-time natural weathering, to get realistic outdoor data faster. Most effectively, Fresnel mirrors are used to concentrate sunlight on a cooled target board. During the last years, several innovations like cool mirrors and control algorithms have been added to the established EMMAQUA technology, providing more and better testing options to the weathering experimenter.
