With the promulgation of UVC as a disinfectant, materials engineers from all industries, as well as electronic devices, testing laboratories, etc. are increasingly concerned that UV-C disinfection adds a new severe photodegradation stress to their materials, for which negative effects on materials have not been investigated. They fear that their materials – textiles, plastics, coatings, etc. – may severely suffer from this “new stress”, which is much harsher than solar UV, and may have considerably reduced service lifetime.
Material durability testing equipment against UVC stress is not widely available on the market. Many companies have recently contacted Atlas for support to simulate the output of these UVC disinfectant devices to evaluate long-term exposure effects.
Examples for affected products, materials, and applications are:
- Consumer electronics
- Electric and electronic devices
- Automotive interior
- Interior of trains, plans, railway station and airport facilities
- Rental cars, public and school buses
- Interior Materials and furniture, e.g. textiles, carpets/flooring, laminates, etc.
- Hospitals, educational, administrative, and other public facilities
- Research institutes
- and many more …