Bandol wheel for accelerated ageing
Bandol wheel for accelerated ageing
Bandol wheel for accelerated ageing
The Bandol wheel is an accelerated weathering instrument for dry and wet weathering cycles. This equipment allows to reproduce the main natural phenomena responsible for chemical alteration on polymer matrices and additives. The equipment meets the requirements specified by EN 16472 standard. This apparatus is designed for plastic/textiles/hard polymeric materials but can be adapted. We also have the possibility to expose samples to chemicals (HCl, H2SO3, etc.) to mimic the action of phytosanitary chemicals (pesticides/fungicides). After ageing, we characterize the samples usually by FTIR to observe the rise of degradation peaks due to the formation of esters, peroxides, anhydrides, etc. We can also monitor the change in colour, haze, gloss of the exposed samples. For UV stabilizers present in plastic films, this is a technique of choice as this can give us a general idea of their efficacy