Global weathering of aromatic engineering thermoplastics

Relative to Miami defined as 1.0, the average rates of color shift and gloss loss were approximately 0.67 in the northern U.S., 0.8 in the central U.S., and 1.15 in the U.S. desert southwest. Southern Europe was nearly as harsh as Miami, while Northern Europe was comparable to the northern U.S. Northern Europe was found to be somewhat harsher than expected while the northern U.S. was slightly less harsh than expected based on light dose or temperature-weighted light dose. These conclusions apply only to aromatic engineering plastics and should not be assumed to hold for other kinds of materials, such as polyolefins or coatings, without experimental verification.