USA-based Atlas, a supplier of material testing equipment, has carryied out a client education programme in Riyadh and Jeddah. The programme, The Fundamentals of Weathering, is a basic one-day seminar offered at various locations worldwide that emphasises lightfastness and weathering durability testing techniques. These techniques include natural and accelerated outdoor exposure testing.

The objective of artificial weathering is to reproduce real life product failures in a laboratory under accelerated and reproducible conditions. Fluorescent ultraviolet (UV) lamps are one light source used to simulate specific solar spectral power distributions. The effect of these sources can be tested using a variety of devices, such as the new UVTest from Atlas.

According to Atlas, the UVTest is a low cost economical artificial weathering device which has a number of easy to use features, including simple touch-screen operations and controls, pre-programmed and custom tests for error free operation, and advanced calibration technology.