Environmental and durability testing laboratory

Certimac deals with the durability tests of materials subjected to external climatic-environmental stress: the so-called aging (or weathering), that is the aging of the material / system in conditions of use and operation over the medium to long term (10-25 years). Aging is simulated in the laboratory by accelerating the imposed thermo-hygrometric and thermo-mechanical stress conditions that affect the performance and / or behavior of the material and the system in which it is inserted.

Materials intended for the external envelope - roofing, exposed façade, ventilated walls, flooring - are continuously subjected to external atmospheric agents. The goal of the environmental durability test procedures is to strain the product with fatigue and evaluate its resistance over time accelerating its degradation in artificially created environments and surrounding conditions, simulating the real conditions of operation and use. After subjected the material to environmental and stress-thermo-hygrometric cycles, its aesthetic, chemical, physical and mechanical characteristics are examined and certified, in order to offer a complete evaluation of the properties of the product / system.

The execution of environmental durability tests is mandatory under the CE marking, both as an initial phase test and as a periodic test.

Certimac's laboratory dedicated to environmental and durability testing has two fully automated Vötsch Industrietechnik Climatic Chambers, based on a microprocessor-controlled and PC-managed system for environmental simulation, which makes it possible to reproduce in the laboratory the various hydrothermal cycles of freeze/thaw, heat-rain, storm cycles, etc. required by the standards and to acquire the actual test data.

Its team of engineers specializing in analysis and durability tests supervise the tests, the processing of the results and the reporting at every stage and ensure constant updating with the evolution of European and international legislation standards.

Certimac specialists in durability of materials  support the producers of materials both in the certification of their product through laboratory analyses and tests, and in the research and development of increasingly performing materials in terms of resistance to environmental stresses.

Cutting-edge equipment, devices and software for analysis, testing, experimental measurements, numerical modelling and calculation algorithms on more than 1,000 types of traditional and innovative materials complement the specialist skills of our materials science experts and the stringent quality parameters of our testing procedures.

From the analysis of the need, to the execution of all laboratory analyses, up to the release of tests and technical-scientific reports, in addition to the search for calls to finance research are the value we offer to the companies that choose us for the qualification and the raising of the thermal properties of materials.