How are paint companies e.g. testing their products for a substained amount of time succesfully? Are they really painting a house and then wait 15 years to see the result?
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There is basically two ways:
1. Yes, paint different materials and leave then to the elements for a specific time period.
2. Pain different materials and ‘force’ exposure and wear and tear in an intense, but shorter, period. Examples include: hard water spray to simulate years of rain, intense light and UV exposure to simulate passing days, increased abrasion to simulate wear and tear, shot but intense temperature variations to simulate seasons.
I used to work in an asphalt binder plant in the lab. We had a process and equipment that would simulate 30 years of exposure in four days. Of course the process was developed over decades and compared to long term testing to ensure the results were comparable. Given enough data-points and long enough history you can develop a short term test that will give you long term estimates.
I also worked in the research department of a polymer plant. One test of how our product performed after seasonal variations was we put them in a semi reefer (refrigerated) trailer. We’d cool them down a week until they froze, then turned off the unit, open the doors and let them acclimate to Deep South summer. Repeat for a few months and you’ve simulated years of seasonal temperature changes.
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