Forced Hydrolysis
Environmental FOR: Insulation $9,450The forced hydrolysis test places the wire/cable specimen in a high-temperature water bath for an extended duration to evaluate the durability of a wire insulation in high-humidity conditions. Depending on the particular wire specification needs, the test may be required to run for thousands of hours. After the prolonged exposure, the sample is then examined and exposed to a dielectric voltage withstand (DVW) test. The pass/fail criteria are based on the DVW test result. A specimen is considered to have successfully passed the test if the posttest DVW finds no insulation breaches. The specimen has failed the test if an insulation breach is detected.
This method was originally introduced to evaluate the hydrolytic stability of polyimide insulations (DuPont Tradename Kapton(R)) as this insulation type can rapidly degrade in high-humidity environments (MIL-W-81381 style wires were particularly susceptible to this).
Pricing will be scaled based on the test duration
Procedure
- Visually examine specimen for any defects. Record any anomalies.
- Perform a dielectric voltage withstand test to verify insulation integrity. Discard any specimen that fail.
- Wrap specimen around a mandrel of specified diameter with sufficient length to keep test leads inches above the fluid line.
- Submerge the specimen in saline solution and raise the solution temperature to the target temperature.
- Maintain specimen submerged in saline solution at specified temperature for specified duration.
- Remove sample from fluid and allow sample to return to ambient temperature.
- Perform dielectric voltage withstand (DVW) test.
- Report fluid immerions test temperature, mandrel diameter, exposure duration, and results of posttest DVW test.
Covered specifications
- AS22759 Paragraph 5.7.14
- AS4373 Method 602
- J1128 Method 6.14