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A Clear Winner: Bayer MaterialScience Tests Automotive Glazing Abrasion
A simple and realistic test.
That is what Bayer MaterialScience experts were hoping to achieve when they devised a new method to test the abrasion resistance of plastic or glass automotive glazing.
By using polycarbonate test sheets, a vehicle that was regularly used, and a car wash at a regular gas station, Bayer MaterialScience conducted an experiment that proved that pure polysiloxane wetcoats are significantly more abrasion resistant than wetcoats with a plasma topcoat.
The tests were a far cry from the standardized Taber test (ASTM D 1044, DIN 52347) which has been traditionally used to determine abrasion resistance of automotive glazing. In the Taber test, two abrasive rollers press with a defined force against the test piece, which rotates at a defined speed as a function of the type of glazing. The extent of the resulting haze determines whether the test has passed.
The Taber test does not represent the actual abrasion that automobile glazing faces in everyday conditions. On the other hand, the test that Bayer MaterialScience conducted at ChemPark in Leverkusen, Germany, aimed to simulate realistic conditions.
"After more than three years of weekly trips to the car wash and more than 150 wash cycles, test sheets coated with the pure wetcoat AS 4000 from Momentive Performance Materials GmbH exhibited less than 1 percent haze, which is not visible to the naked eye," said Peter Capellen, a coatings expert in the Automotive Glazing team at Bayer MaterialScience.
In contrast, the haze exhibited by wetcoat plasma coatings intended especially for automotive glazing exceeded this critical value after only about 50 wash cycles. This is due in part to the fact that, at just less than 1 percent, the initial haze value of plasma systems is higher. Furthermore, spot delamination of the plasma coating occurs relatively quickly, resulting in greater light scattering and thus visible haze.
To test the validity of the results, Bayer MaterialScience studied a number of "used" polycarbonate glazing elements coated with pure wetcoats from regular production vehicles, among them a fixed side window made of Makrolon® polycarbonate resin.
"Even after six years on the road, all of the parts exhibited less than 1 percent haze in the transparent areas," said Capellen.
The results are clear. The expertise gleaned from these and other tests is part of BayVision®, the umbrella brand for Bayer MaterialScience's complete portfolio of automotive glazing offerings that translate into innovative vehicle applications tailored to the needs of each individual customer.
To learn more about BayVision and automotive glazing abrasion resistance, contact Dereck Jaggers at 248-475-7728 or dereck.jaggers@bayerbms.com.
Read the entire press release here.
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