Arizona days of hundred-plus temperature can feel like a test of endurance.
But that’s exactly why so many manufacturers choose Phoenix to test their materials from plastic to paint to vinyl.
Think 117 degrees was hot? Try twice that temperature.
Chad Olson is a testing supervisor with Q-Lab Test Services. Their test site on a dirt field in Buckeye. Nothing living out here, just rows of metal panels that tilt on an axis to follow the sun and boxes containing vehicle parts. Olson explains the glass tops on the boxes mimic a car windshield.
When it is a comfortable 90 degrees outside, that dashboard is feeling the heat. Olson said the temperature in there can get up to 230 degrees.
"When you’re in this closed environment the heat just builds and builds. You can get well over the boiling point in there, and it’ll just stay there all day," Olson said.
It’s what happens to Phoenix cars in parking lots as their drivers go shopping or to work. If you can’t find a shady spot, the UV rays are hitting your dash at full blast. Michael Crewdson is managing director for Q-Lab and said UV rays are as tough on plastics as they are on your skin. Except that people can regrow damaged cells - a car can’t.
"So it’s getting a sunburn every day and not recovering," Crewdson said.
This dashboard still looks pretty normal. There isn’t much that changes in a matter of a few months. But further back in the field, Q-Lab has some old-timers.
Rectangles of vinyl siding, the type you might find on a house, have been out here for the past fifteen years. And some of them are looking worse for wear. Crewdson points out a trio of blackened rectangles.
"Those were a really nice dark, rich reddy-brown color when they were first exposed, Crewdson said.
The downside to this type of test, though, is that it takes a long time. So Q-Lab also offers accelerated tests that use a series of mirrors to reflect about ten times the amount of UV rays back onto the materials, like a super intense tanning booth. Crewdson explained that this set up requires two large fans.
"It keeps them from getting too hot and bursting into flame," he said.
Ten times the UV rays also equals ten times the temperature.
Just as Phoenicians learn to adapt to summers here, manufacturing companies learn to adapt their products. For example, Olson said some car companies are developing infra-red resistant paints.
"They actually reflect the infra-red back out. So a black car with this new paint might be almost as cool as a white car from, you know, the previous models," he said.
As for us, I guess we’ll just have to break out the SPF 50 like we do every year.
