Long-Term Durability Testing

Our experts provide testing support to help you determine the long-term durability and environmental resistance of polymer materials.

Understanding the long-term performance properties of a material helps manufacturers and designer make safe and effective material choices for their product or component.

Our expert team will devise a bespoke testing programme tailored to your project’s requirements, potentially involving a range of our physical test methods:

  • Creep testing
  • Fatigue testing
  • Environmental testing

We can test to various national and international standards, along with client specifications, across a range of industry sectors.

If a material is found to be unsuitable, our experts can help you select an appropriate material based on the expected end-use conditions.

Our most common tests and products are listed below:

  • Environmental testing
  • Resistance to Weathering or UV Ageing
  • Resistance to Ozone cracking (static)
  • Resistance to Air / Heat
  • Resistance to Humidity
  • Fatigue of polymers (tensile or flexural)
  • Environmental Stress Cracking (ESC)
  • Bespoke programme design
  • Stress Relaxation of Polymers
  • Creep strain

Standards and Accreditation

FPW can test to a range of national and international standards, along with client specifications, across a range of industry sectors.

Temperature Testing

Our laboratories use temperature cycling and temperature aging in a variety of product test evaluations. Temperature cycling is used to evaluate the behaviour of a product when exposed to varying temperature extremes. In order to accelerate the change in physical properties of a material or product, constant elevated temperature is used. An example of a test after a heat aging is tensile.

FPW’s temperature testing capabilities include:

  • Thermal Cycling
  • Thermal Shock
  • Humidity Cycling
  • Ovens
  • Freezers
  • Salt spray Testing

Our product testing experts are highly experienced in performing temperature exposure testing for a variety of products including, but not limited to:

  • Automotive components
  • Industrial goods
  • Rubber products
  • Plastic products
  • Consumer products
  • Fluid systems
  • Medical products

Our tests are performed to industry and governmental standards – ASTM, ISO, SAE, Fed, MIL, FDA and OEM automotive specifications.