At Kiwa, products for a large number of diffe-

rent applications are certified. In a lot of these

applications rubber and rubber products are
playing an important role. Certification gives a
good assurance that the products are suitable
for the intended application but normally
there is no real lifetime expectation involved.
Programs for certification are based on rather
standard and mostly average conditions of use
and every deviation of that has a great impact
on the lifetime.
Confidence for the customers
Nowadays, a lot of customers want to plan in
detail their schedules for maintenance and
replacement and for that they need pretty
specific information on the lifetime expecta-
tion of the products they buy. Therefore
questions like How long will it last?, are
asked more and more.
Without further investigations the producer of
the products will not be able to answer such
questions. Also fulfilling the requirements of a
standard or evaluation guideline is not telling
enough in this respect.

Kiwa has the knowledge and the necessary
laboratory facilities and equipment to answer
such lifetime prediction questions.

How does it work?
Very important is to know as good as possible
the exact conditions that a product will see
throughout its entire life. Here all details
regarding media, stresses and temperatures
are needed to get the full picture. With all that
information a test program can be set up in
order to accelerate the different processes that
might cause deterioration of the material.

The results of the different tests are then
evaluated with respect to the conditions of the
specific application. Normally this has to be
done for each property separately because the
acceleration factors can be different. After all
those calculations the separate outcomes are
combined to give a grounded estimation on
the lifetime of a specific product for a specific
application.


Afterwards the estimation can be adjusted in
case the circumstances during actual functio-
ning turn out to be different then those
expected. Also it is possible to use, at least a
lot, of the results for other applications of the
same rubber compound.

It is remarked that a proper lifetime prediction
strongly depends on the test results and the
variation in properties at one side but the
same importance is given to the data on the
application at the other side.

Explanation: more details
Keeping in mind that roughly thermal
oxidation processes accelerate with a factor 2
to 3 with every ten degrees raise in
temperature it is obvious that being to
conservative in giving the temperatures for
the intended use is leading to far to short
lifetime expectations.

An example
Often the sales departments of manufacturers
like to give an as high as possible temperature
that can be used. Here no restrictions are
given. For instance maximum temperature of
use is 150 C. Without further information
then all calculations are made as if the product
would be used at a constant temperature of
150 C. In real practice it might well be that a
temperature of 150 C is only present during
1 % of the lifetime and only at the start of a
process, while the rest of the time tempera-
tures varying between 40 C and 130 C are
normal. Without knowing anything more and
assuming that all other time a temperature of
130 C is present in stead of 150 C it makes a
big difference of at least a factor 2
2
= 4 in
lifetime expectation.
Rubber consultancy & lifetime prediction
Date
24 June 2010
Code

Kiwa Nederland B.V.
Sir W. Churchill-laan 273
Postbus 70
2280 AB RIJSWIJK
The Netherlands

Tel. +31 70 414 44 00
Fax +31 70 414 44 20
www.kiwa.nl



This simple example shows the importance of
accurate data of the intended application. Of
course it is not always known exactly what
will happen with a product after it is
designed, produced and taken into use. Then
the advantage of using the data for new
calculations to adjust the estimation is of
importance.
Similar reasoning goes for other influences
like: media, stresses, environment and so on.
For all it is important to know as precise as
possible what can be expected in order to
make a good estimation of what will happen
in future.
Kiwa has to knowledge to help you do this
and to carry out the necessary measurements
and calculations.


A small example from praxis to give some idea
of what it is all about.
The case has to do with a seal for a box which
is supposed to hang in the open air outdoor
in Japan. A lifetime of at least 15 years should
be assured. Here a silicone rubber was chosen
as material. Given the conditions outdoor in
Japan the influences that should be taken into
account are: oxidation, ozone, UV, water,
micro biological attack, permanent defor-
mation and stress relaxation.
By using silicone as base for the material, the
ozone, UV, cold water and micro biological
influences can be neglected and also oxidation
is probably not relevant.
Properties measured are: hardness, compres-
sion set and stress relaxation. All as function
of time at different elevated temperatures. The
results are summarized in the graphs.

Hardness (method ISO 48)
For hardness it is clear that predictions are not
possible based on the results. Also it is clear
that oxidation indeed is no issue for this
material.

Results of the hardness measurements

Results of the compression set measurements

Compression set (ISO 815)
Here smooth lines showing an increasing
deformation of the test pieces are obtained.
Such results can be used to make an evalua-
tion using Arrhenius (ISO 11346).

Leading to a graph of the time needed to reach
a certain change versus the reciprocal tempe-
rature. From this graph the lifetime at a certain
temperature can be drawn and conclusions on
a real lifetime expectation can be given.

For more information please contact:
Jaap Havinga or Hans Naus
Senior Rubber Consultants

E-mail: rubber@kiwa.nl
Phone: +31 70 414 4555
The Arrhenius equation describes the relation-ship between
time and temperature of a first order chemical process:
RT
E
a
e A t =
with: t = exposition time [s]
A = constant
Ea = apparent activation energy [J/mol]
R = gas constant [8,314 J/mol K]
T = absolute temperature [K]