Elastomer Aging Test Considerations: How Do Equipment, Test Conditions, and Configuration Affect Test Results?

There are a few different test methods that are suggested to be used to note the extent of degradation of materials, which is often used to estimate service life. There are a range of approaches that are considered, as well as specific controls for equipment that are suggested or required. After reviewing these test methods and data from them, I sometimes question if some of these recommendations are valid for all materials, test methods and situations.

This paper is intended to provide data and background on modes of degradation, test methods, test specimen configurations, test equipment and test controls and their effect on the uniformity and reproducibility of data sets, and their usefulness and validity in predicting longer term performance. This paper is in part an extension and an expansion of some of the previous information included in the 2015 ACS Rubber Division Paper, “Estimation of Elastomer Service Life: Approaches and Considerations”.