Nissan Uses Sunlight Simulator To Speed Up Paint Durability Test

Nissan engineers in Michigan, USA have found an innovative and quicker way of performing sunlight UV exposure tests to check paint durability. Called the Xenon Weather-Ometer (XWO), which is essentially a Sunlight Simulator, exposes various paint samples panels to harsh UV environments at the same time. The machine has been designed to hold up to 100 samples paint samples at a time and since the artificial sunshine is present in the box 24 hours a day, Nissan can test the durability of paint in roughly half the time it would take doing it the old-fashioned way.

Xenon Weather-Ometre (XWO) can test up to 100 paint samples together

In order to replicate the effect of solar energy, the Xenon Weather-Ometer (XWO) uses a 4,000-watt Xenon bulb that bakes nearly 100 samples at the same wavelengths as the sun. In fact, the samples inside the machine rotate around the Xenon bulb to imitate earth's orbit, to make the test as accurate as possible. The paint samples are then observed in a series of cycles to investigate changes and thus ensure top durability and quality for Nissan cars.

Xenon Weather-Ometre uses a 4,000-watt Xenon bulb to replicate solar power

Talking about this innovative process, Doug Prytula, Technician, Body And Chassis Testing, Nissan North America, said "In addition to rigorous real-world tests, this tool allows us to create harsh environments. It is one more step we take to ensure Nissan's quality standards are second-to-none."

Nissan says the XWO takes roughly half the time it would take doing it the old-fashioned way

The company says that it uses test environments, similar to the XWO accelerated weather chamber, to replicate conditions that occur in a natural environment, right inside the lab. Nissan says that these test cells expose various types of material samples to a wide range of conditions that a vehicle may face throughout its lifecycle.