Adhesives, coatings, coated fabrics, elastomers, encapsulants, films, hardware and structural materials, and tapes are tested in a series of physical, mechanical, and electrical tests. Material properties are measured before and after exposure to the three environments

Roper, W. D.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

June 1970	 Brief 70-10208 
NASA TECH BRIEF 
NASA Tech Briefs announce new technology derived from the U.S. space program. They are issued to encourage commercial 
application. Tech .Briefs are available on a subscription basis from the Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical 
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be directed to the Technology Utilization Division, NASA, Code UT, Washington, D.C. 20546. 
Effects of Decontamination, Sterilization, and Thermal

Vacuum on Polymeric Products 
Sample 
Preparation 
Vacuum	 I Materials Testing- 
Ethylene Oxide
	 Thermal	
Thermal-	 I 
Decontamination	 Sterilization	 Exposure	 I	 Control Samples 
	
Materials Testing-1 	 Data Reduction 
Exposed Samples I And Analysis 
Exposure and Test Sequence 
The effects of various sterilization environments 
on certain polymeric products have beendetërmined. 
The material categories selected for this program 
were: (I) adhesives; (2) coatings; (3) coated fabrics; 
(4) elastomers; (5) encapsulants; (6) films; (7) hard-
ware and structural materials; and (8) tapes. Each 
product was subjected to the following exposure se-
quence: (1) six 30-hr decontamination cycles in a 
humidified ethylene oxide-freon atmosphere at 50°C; 
(2) six 96-hr thermal-sterilization cycles in a dry nitro-
gen atmosphere at 135° C; and (3) one 500-hr thermal-
vacuum exposure at 135° C and 10-6 torr. 
The test sequence is outlined in the figure. Material 
properties were measured without exposure to the
three environments (control specimens), as well as 
after exposure. The physical, mechanical, and electri-
cal tests employed for each class of materials were; 
(1) adhesive shear strength; (2) adhesion; (3) adhesive 
creep; (4) weight change; (5) volume resistivity; (6) 
dielectric strength; (7) breaking strength; (8) dimen-
sional change; (9) tensile strength; (10) tear strength; 
and (11) hardness and compression set. 
The test results indicated that of the products tested, 
the epoxy and fluorocarbon materials were the least 
affected; polyesters and polyurethanes were the most 
affected. Of the material categories, tapes and elas-
tomeric products were affected the most by the ex-
posures.
(continued overleaf) 
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Aeronautics and Space Administration. Neither the United States	 information contained in this document, or warrants that such use 
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Notes: 
1. This study was conducted primarily on polymeric 
products for use on spacecraft, but it should also be 
of interest to designers of equipment where vacuum 
or heat applications relating to polymeric products 
are a factor. 
2. The following documentation may be obtained 
from:
Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific 
and Technical Information 
Springfield, Virginia 22151 
Single document price $3.00 
(or microfiche $0.65)
Reference: 
NASA-CR- 103426 (N69-31924), Effects 
of Decontamination, Sterilization, and 
Thermal Vacuum on Spacecraft Poly-
meric Products 
Patent status: 
No patent action is contemplated by NASA. 
Source: W. D. Roper of 
Caltech /J PL 
under contract to 
NASA Pasadena Office 
(N PO- l 1250) 
Brief 70-10208	 Category 04


Effects of decontamination, sterilization, and thermal vacuum on polymeric products

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