EPDM & UV Ray

Presently more organizations and facilities have widely used rubber as a component of flooring. Especially in a high-traffic area where safety is demanded. Rubber flooring is applied to replace hard floors because of the special advantages related to the excellent properties of rubbers. Like many surfaces around the earth, rubber floor is also exposed to every degradation factor, for example, heat, ozone, ultraviolet, low temperature, salt water and acid rain.  Among all, ultraviolet is a much more significant factor than others.

It is well known that rubbers in common used degrade on exposure to light and the deterioration is due to the ultraviolet portion of sunlight reaching the earth. Since the use of rubbers in outdoor applications is increasing, it is important to investigate and understand the degradation behaviour of rubber subjected to ultraviolet irradiation. This knowledge will help one to evaluate the product’s performance and predict its lifetime. 

UV RADIATION

Every surface around the earth is exposed to sunlight and every living being are benefited from it. But since the earth is ageing a lot, a hole in the ozone layer was discovered in 1985 allowing more levels of ultraviolet rays that we do not need to earth. Ultraviolet ray is dangerous as can inflict disease on human and cause degradation on certain non-living beings. 

There are 3 types of UV-ray which are UVA, UVB and UVC. UVA is the most common that penetrates ozone layers while is not dangerous compared to UVB and UVC. The constant exposure of it could cause damage to humans and other things. UVB is strong while UVC is the strongest among all, only a little amount of UVB could penetrate through the atmosphere while UVC mostly could not penetrate. The reason why some UVB and most UVC could not penetrate is that both have shorter wavelengths and are absorbed by the atmosphere.