ScienceDirect IFAC-PapersOnLine 48-4 (2015) 117–122 ScienceDirect Available online at www.sciencedirect.com 2405-8963 © 2015, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer review under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Control. 10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.07.018 © 2015, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. *Department of Mechatronics, Faculty of Engineering Built Environment and Information technology Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa **Product Engineering, Volkswagen of South Africa, Uitenhage, South Africa ***Institute of Product and Process Innovation, Leuphana University, Lueneburg, Germany Corresponding Author: mercorelli@uni.leuphan.de Abstract: It is the desire of every motorist to drive an exquisite vehicle, so it is very crucial for players in the automotive industry to keep on improving the quality of vehicles. While the interior components of a vehicle are the most critical components to the overall durability and comfort of a vehicle, it is important to guarantee the quality of these components. Vehicle interior components are usually made of plastic, leather, fabric and painted components which can all be prone to quick ageing. Fading, cracking and distortion are rife in vehicle interior components, and these effects are caused by natural factors such as radiation, moisture and extreme temperature. This phenomenon is known as “weathering”. Tireless work has been done over the decades to carry out weathering tests on automotive components in order to address critical areas during the design process of the components. This paper explores one method of carrying out weathering tests on automotive dashboards in which a metallic testing box is used to simulate the conditions inside a vehicle. The main concern is that the temperature inside the test box can go above the necessary testing range which causes test samples to be destroyed before sufficient data is collected. A temperature control system was developed and installed to monitor the temperature inside the box. Weathering tests are being carried out in extremely harsh environments; therefore both the weathering test box and the temperature control system have to be robust. A solar-powered programmable logic controller (PLC), which has the ability to withstand harsh conditions, was used to monitor and control the system. Development of a temperature controlled weathering test box to evaluate the life cycle behaviour of interior automotive components Tumai Zindove*, Theo Van Niekerk*, Thomas Wilm**, Paolo Mercorelli*** Keywords: Weathering, test box, Siemens PLC, ventilation, temperature control, greenhouse 1. INTRODUCTION Weathering has been a critical subject for several decades especially to the automotive industry. Several methods for carrying out weathering tests are being used by automotive companies as well as by companies specialising in material testing. This paper focuses on the response of automotive dashboards to global radiation. It is common for motorists to park their vehicles in the sun for prolonged periods of time. The effect of global radiation on interior automotive components is often overlooked but it yields raging results over the service period of a vehicle. Weathering tests can be carried out by exposing test samples to natural conditions or by simulating natural conditions in the laboratory (Atlas Materials Testing Solutions 2001:5). When natural conditions are simulated in the laboratory, it is called “accelerated weathering”. The advantage of accelerated weathering is that the test results are obtained quickly. However, accelerated weathering cannot simulate the global radiation spectrum in total (Atlas Materials Testing Solutions 2001:6). Accelerated weathering is compatible with time-to-market constraints; it provides test data quick enough to allow changes in the product design process. However, it does not accurately reproduce failure modes seen in real life (Haillant 2011). In this paper, a low cost weathering testing method is explored. A local automotive company is using two methods to test interior vehicle components for weathering. The first method is to park a vehicle in the sun such that the sun shines through the windshield and degrades the interior components while test data is continuously taken. The biggest shortfall of this method is that the vehicle will be of little value at the end of the testing period which makes this method costly. To remedy the concern of using cars to carry out weathering tests, the local automotive manufacturer has adopted the use of testing boxes. The size of a testing box is such that it can accommodate the dashboard of a passenger vehicle. The dashboard is put into the testing box and it gets exposed to maximum global radiation which shines through a glass cover mounted at a convenient angle. These tests are being carried out in areas with extreme levels of global radiation, temperature and moisture. Atlas material testing solutions also uses a similar technique but with integrated azimuth tracking on the box to achieve maximum solar irradiance. Atlas also uses fixed exposure racks for testing various components (Atlas Materials Testing Solutions 2001:34). In this paper a PLC was chosen as the most suitable type of controller for this application.