Weathering's day in the sun

Before lighter-weight or recycled materials and components can make their way into vehicles, it is essential to understand how they react under the influence of weather.

As designers and engineers seek to reduce weight, increase the amount of recycled content, and become more cost-effective, the use of new lightweight materials, composites, and compounds is growing in the automotive industry. Testing to ensure that these new materials meet performance, durability, and regulatory targets plays a key role in helping companies minimize the risk of costly failure at later stages of the development process.

To understand how materials and components will react when exposed to the environment over the course of their life cycle, weathering testing has taken on greater significance. Products must be optimized to endure conditions ranging from very dry to wet and humid and from freezing to very hot.