Estimation of Elastomer Service Life: Approaches and Considerations

There are different test methods, approaches, and requirements that have been suggested and used to try to estimate the Life-Time and Maximum Use Temperature of Elastomers. These seem to be simple and straight forward in their approach from a testing perspective, but there might be some question as to how useful they might really be in relation to the performance of specific component designs in applications exposed to particular environments (fluids and temperatures). Most of the approaches make the assumption that the performance in applications is primarily a material property issue, and that the rate and extent of the degradation of a component's capability is a uniform response. This paper is intended to show some data on different materials, test methods and environments, and raise some questions on these current approaches and their ability to provide an accurate representation of the potential performance of a material in an application.