Testing facilities at your service: UV testing

To make sure our plastic profiles stand the test of time, Primo uses advanced UV and weathering testing to recreate environmental conditions in a laboratory. Intense UV light, heat, moisture and temperature cycles are carefully controlled and repeated in a closed chamber. This allows us to obtain consistent, repeatable results that demonstrate how our products perform under harsh yet realistic conditions.

The simulator uses special lamps to reproduce the full spectrum of natural sunlight. This means our tests expose profiles to the same UV, visible, and infrared rays as real sunlight. At the same time, we control temperature and humidity inside the chamber, ensuring each test reflects real-world climate conditions in a reliable, reproducible way.

Advanced Accelerated Aging and Weather Simulation

We can also test changing weather conditions, typically between intense UV exposure (simulating bright sunlight and heat) and water spray or humidity (simulating rain and dew). By repeating these cycles, we mimic the natural pattern of daytime sun followed by moisture at night, giving a realistic simulation of outdoor weather.

The durability of the profile is another critical factor and part of the testing environment: While natural outdoor exposure can take months or years, equivalent effects can typically be reproduced in a matter of days or weeks. Under standard test conditions, one year of outdoor exposure can be simulated in about one month.

This accelerated aging lets us see long-term effects like color fading, surface degradation, or loss of strength significantly faster. If a profile retains its color and strength after an extreme accelerated test, it gives us and our customers confidence that it will resist UV damage and harsh weather in the field.

Ensuring Long-Term Performance in Harsh Environments

This kind of weathering evaluation is highly valuable in any industry where products face outdoor or semi-outdoor conditions. For example, building and construction materials like windows, doors, gaskets, and automotive components (e.g. sealings, bumpers), and other outdoor equipment benefit from accelerated UV testing. By confirming that materials can endure prolonged sunlight, heat, rain, and humidity without significant degradation, we help our partners ensure their products meet long-term performance and color stability requirements in real-world use.