Case Study: Additives and Colorants

Q-Lab is the world leader in colorant weathering test equipment and test services for chemical additives and colorants industries. Colorants and other additives that see sunlight, moisture, and heat are subject to the damaging forces of nature. Of course, some additives are formulated specifically to protect base polymers against forces of weathering and corrosion.

Will your colorants and additives last outdoors? For how long? Does your new raw material supplier have the same quality as your previous one? Has something changed in your process that may affect your product's outdoor durability? Don't guess when you can test.

Q-Lab serves thousands of customers and dozens of industries involved with additives and colorants, including packaging, plastics, automotive, pharmaceuticals & cosmetics, etc. These diverse industries utilize:

• Dyes and pigments
• Anti-microbials
• UV stabilizers
• Flame retardants
• Corrosion inhibitors
• Plasticizers

Accurate simulation of the short-wave ultraviolet portion of sunlight and outdoor moisture have made the QUV accelerated weathering tester the world's most widely used weathering tester for plastics, coatings, and many of the additives that go into them. Because of its simulation of the entire sunlight spectrum and versatile, easy-to-use specimen tray, the Q-SUN xenon test chamber is another popular choice, particularly for colorants or other additives that may be sensitive to long-wave UV and visible light.

Q-Lab's accelerated weathering and lightstability testers simulate the primary weathering conditions that degrade all types of polymeric materials, allowing our customers to accurately reproduce dozens of potential failure modes, including:

• Yellowing
• Cracking
• Crazing
• Color change and fading
• Delamination
• Warping
• Embrittlement
• Blistering
• Loss of tensile strength
• Erosion
• Delamination and loss of adhesion
• Gloss loss
• Chalking

Weathering isn't the only concern for additives and colorants manufacturers. Corrosion is responsible for billions of dollars of damage to materials and infrastructure each year. For testing against the forces of corrosion, the Q-FOG cyclic corrosion chamber is the perfect tool for recreating realistic industrial or marine corrosion in the laboratory. When you alternate Q-FOG and QUV tester exposures, you obtain the most reliable and realistic weathering and corrosion results available today.

While accelerated weathering, lightstability, and corrosion chambers are a key weapon in the fight against the forces of nature, nothing beats the real thing: outdoor testing in one of Q-Lab's benchmark outdoor testing facilities. If you want to combine the benefits of outdoor and accelerated testing, the Q-TRAC natural sunlight concentrator can provide five times the annual solar energy of an exposure in South Florida.

The Q-SUN tester's flat specimen tray accommodates a variety of different specimen shapes, including bottles and jars.

Q-Lab's testers can be used to help reformulate your product for better weathering resistance or lower cost.

Dyed yarn samples await color testing in a xenon arc test chamber..

Hair colorant is often tested for color change in a Q-SUN tester using small, dyed locks of hair.

Will the hair dye that you are using change color in the sun?

Various additives and colorants on a Q-SUN Xe-1 specimen tray being prepared for testing.