Patent ID: 7013742

Claim:
Device for exposure of samples to photonic radiation for accelerated artificial weathering tests, comprising: a chamber, a sample-holding cage rotating around an axis (H—H) that will be approximately horizontal in operation, means of fixing the position of at least one arc lamp, and particularly a mercury vapour lamp or a mercury or compound vapour lamp near the central part of the cage, and of supplying said lamp with electricity, an air circulation system comprising an air passage orifice arranged along the axial prolongation (H—H) of the central part of the cage and several fixed air passage openings arranged in the radial prolongation of the periphery of the cage, the improvement being that a ventilation means blows air into the chamber through the orifice that forms an air intake orifice arranged approximately parallel to the horizontal axis (H—H), the lamp being placed along the immediate axial prolongation (H—H) of the air intake orifice, so as to generate an air stream arriving directly on the lamp and approximately parallel to the axis along the central part of the cage, the air stream diverging around the lamp and being evacuated approximately perpendicular to the axis through the fixed air passage openings that form air openings around the periphery of the cage, such that the temperature of the air stream increases as the air stream comes into contact with the lamp, before going around the samples, increasing their temperature.