How Many Environmental Tests for Amusement Park Facilities

July 17,2023

As people's requirements for leisure life styles are increasing and diversifying, theme parks of various sizes are favored by friends of all sizes. At the same time, due to various accidents caused by the lack of safety of facilities, people's requirements for the safety and reliability of amusement equipment continue to increase. The certification, testing and inspection of playgrounds and amusement facilities implement the concept of safety into the design, commissioning, operation and maintenance of playgrounds and amusement facilities, so as to ensure the safety, reliability and appreciation of products.

Why the Facilities Need to do Environmental Test?

Amusement park entertainment facilities: such as carousels, sky seats, ferris wheels, etc. are usually outdoors, exposed to high temperature, high heat or humid environment. The surface of the facility is often corroded and aged. The exposure of paint and coatings on its surface accounts for a large proportion of the individual tests of outdoor and laboratory artificial aging. Outdoor long-term sunlight exposure, high temperature and humidity are the main reasons for coating cracking, loss of gloss, fading, yellowing, and chalking. The weather resistance of the coating is related to the spectral sensitivity of the coating components. The main resin of the paint is mainly composed of epoxy resin, amino resin, polyester resin, etc., and contains functional groups such as carbon-oxygen double bonds and carbon-carbon single bonds. Different functional groups have different sensitivity to light due to different bond energy, resulting in differences in weather resistance. For exterior paints, UV rays are the main cause of paint aging. The ultraviolet accelerated aging test can simulate the damage of the ultraviolet part of the sun to the coating, and reproduce the damage that occurs outdoors for months or even years in a few days or a few weeks.

Light,

high temperature,

humidity,

any of these three factors will cause aging damage to the paint coating of playground equipment, but they often act at the same time, and the harm caused will be greater than that of any one of the factors alone.Therefore, we need to do relevantenvironmental testson its surface layer to improve its reliability and durability. The following are the tests needed.

High and Low Temperature & High and Low Humidity Cycle Test

test condition

Temperature: 20℃+/-5℃

Humidity: 65%RH +/-10%RH

Test instruments

LIB Constant temperature and humidity test chamber

Test purposes

Simulate various environments to verify product weather resistance test

test method

First check whether the surface of the product to be tested is free of defects; then check whether the instrument is normal, place the product under test flat on the test area of the chamber, , turn on the machine and set the parameters according to the specified test requirements to start the test.

Judgment basis

Measurement conditions: 60°C ~ -40°C, with 20°C as the ladder step, and stay at each step for 1 hour, after 8 cycles of testing (total 48 hours), visually observe whether there is any deformation and whether the surface is free of peeling, cracking, foaming or other.

High Temperature Test

test condition

Temperature: 60℃+/-5℃

Humidity: 85%RH +/-10%RH

Test instruments

LIB Industry Oven

Test purposes

Verify the high temperature resistance of the product

test method

First check whether the surface of the product to be tested is free of defects; then check whether the instrument is normal, and place the product under test flat on the test area of the chamber, switch and set the parameters according to the specified test requirements to start the test

Judgment basis

Plastic products: The test condition is 65°C and after 48 hours of testing, visually observe whether there is deformation and whether the surface is free from peeling, cracking, and foaming, and conduct routine performance tests (adhesion, ethanol resistance, and abrasion resistance) of the products ﹑copper column torque ﹑ electric cathode) need to meet the test standards. In addition, other tests such as the PE protective film on the product surface are attached to the product and tested at a high temperature of 65°C for 8 hours to check whether there is no glue residue and paint removal (protective film sticking, paint falling off).

Thermal Shock Test

test condition

Temperature: 60℃+/-5℃

Humidity: 85%RH +/-10%RH

Test instruments

LIB Thermal Shock Test Chamber

Test purposes

Rapid cold and heat shock, verify the weather resistance test of the product

test method

Judgment basis

Name	LIB Temperature Shock Test Machine
Model	TS-500
Inner dimensions of test room	650650500 m m
Load of test room	50 kg
Upper limit preheat temperature	+220 ℃
Heating time	Ambient temperature to ~ + 200 ℃
Lower limit pre-cool temperature	-75 ℃
Cooling time	Ambient temperature to ~ -70℃

Salt Spray Test

test condition

Temperature: 60℃+/-5℃

Humidity: 85%RH +/-10%RH

Test instruments

LIB Salt Spray Corrosion Test Chamber

Test purposes

Verify product corrosion resistance

test method

Judgment basis

Plastic electroplating or spraying products: the test conditions are (saturated air barrel 37°C, test room temperature 35°C, humidity 100%), check whether there is no peeling, no foaming, yellowing, etc. after 48 hours of test time; and Routine performance tests (adhesion, ethanol resistance, abrasion resistance) of its products need to meet the test standards. Hardware products: The test conditions are (saturated air barrel 37°C, temperature of the test room area 35°C, humidity 100%), after 12 hours of test time, check whether there is no peeling, no blistering, oxidation, rust, etc.

Accelerated Weathering Test

test condition

Temperature: 50 ℃

Test instruments

LIB UV Accelerated Weathering Test Chamber

The artificial accelerated aging test is carried out in accordance with ASTM G154 "Ultraviolet Aging

Test Method for Non-metallic Materials". The experimental equipment is a UV accelerated aging test machine. The chamber has a closed feedback loop system control to set and control the UV light irradiation intensity. The test uses a UVA-340 ultraviolet lamp with a peak light intensity of 343 nm and a cut-off point of 295 nm. In order to eliminate the influence of different temperatures on the experimental results, the test temperature was uniformly set at 50 °C.

The experiments were tested under three different cycling conditions:

Condition1: 4 hours of ultraviolet light irradiation, 4 hours of condensation; the irradiation point of the UVA-340 lamp is controlled at 0.83 W/(m 2 ·nm) @340nm; the temperature of the entire test cycle is controlled at 50 °C. The UV radiation intensity in this test cycle is equivalent to the sunlight at noon in summer.

Condition 2: 4 h UV irradiation, 4 h condensation; the irradiation point of the UVA-340 lamp is controlled at 1.35 W/(m 2 ·nm) @ 340 nm; the temperature of the entire test cycle is controlled at 50 °C. Condition 2 is basically similar to Condition 1, but with stronger irradiance.

Condition 3: 4 h UV light irradiation (100% UV irradiation, no condensation, no dark cycle); the irradiation point of UVA-340 lamp tube is controlled at 1.35 W/(m 2 ·nm) @ 340 nm; the whole test cycle The temperature is controlled at 50°C.