Techniques of assessing air pollution damage to paints

Abstract

In this study, research was concerned primarily with the development of test methods that are sufficiently sensitive to detect the initial degradation of selected exterior coatings exposed to various pollutant‐containing environments. The test methods employed in generating dose response data included erosion rates, attenuated total reflectance (ATR), gloss and sheen, surface roughness, tensile strength and scanning election microscopy. Five commercially important paint systems were selected for characterizations including an oil house paint, latex coating, an alkyd industrial maintenance coating, a coil coating and an automotive refinish lacquer. The properties of the coating systems were determined periodically consequent to ‘short term’ exposure at four exterior locations and to various pollutant‐containing environments under controlled, but accelerated conditions in an Atlas Xenon Arc Weather‐Ometer® Model 600WR12. The test sites for the former ‘short term’ exterior study were located at Leeds (north central), North Dakota; Los Angeles, California; Chicago (Research Center), Illinois and Valparaiso, Indiana. These sites represent a ‘clean’ rural environment, a high O3 environment, a high SO2 environment, and a relatively high O3 environment plus a moderate SO2 environment, respectively. In the accelerated laboratory exposure study, five enenvironmental pollutant conditions were employed in the Weather‐Ometer including a zero pollutant, 0·1ppm and 1·0ppm SO2 and 0·1ppm or 1·0ppm O3 level. The zero pollutant condition represents the control (clean air) with 0·1 ppm of each pollutant type considered representative of the levels frequently reached in polluted cities. The 1·0ppm levels represent a highly polluted (industrial) site.

Citation

Campbell, G.G., Schurr, G.G. and Slawikowski, D.E. (1974), "Techniques of assessing air pollution damage to paints", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 3 No. 7, pp. 3-4. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb041014