Advanced Test Setup for Accelerated Aging of Plastics by Visible LED Radiation

In this article, a newly developed test setup for the aging of optical plastics by visible radiation (450 nm) is presented. In addition to a comprehensive monitoring of the operating parameters and an efficient cooling of the high-power multiple chips on board the LEDs used, the plastic samples can be fully temperature-controlled, independent of the radiant power of the LED, due to fluid driven thermostatization. The sample surface temperatures and irradiance values were verified by in situ measurements and simulations. To validate the test setup, polycarbonate samples with well-known aging behavior were aged for 1896 h. By spectroscopic IR and UV/vis analysis of the samples at different aging times, known optical aging results of polycarbonate could be observed, which proves the intended operationality of the system.