MATERIALS TESTING | EQUIPMENT


Putting materials to the test


Suppliers of materials testing equipment are finding new ways to simplify operation and better integrate procedures into laboratory environments, writes Mark Holmes


A wide variety of tests and procedures are available to compounders to allow them to meet their analyt- ical requirements in polymer characterisation for purposes of research and development, quality control and to provide customers with verifiable data. Some of these involve complex test proce- dures, and new software is also now available to help process this information more efficiently. There are several key issues that plastics compounders and masterbatchers need to consider when selecting materials testing and analytical equipment or services. “Method repro- ducibility and instrument accuracy are a pre-requi- site,” says Dr Tobias Pflock, Manager Business Field Polymer at Netzsch. “Most importantly, the testing equipment manufacturer must make it as easy as possible for the compounder to integrate the


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instrument operation into the manufacturing process by focusing on software usability, product reliability, comprehensive service and application support. If you build your quality control procedure on an instrument that is not reliable throughout your product lifecycle – you might have to pay twice.”


In the digital age Pflock sees data integration as the major trend. “As a result of increasing material complexity, industry will require more testing and not less,” he says. “Our instruments deliver a wide variety of valuable information, for example, about melting behaviour and processability (Differential Scanning Colorimetry – DSC), thermal stability and compositional analysis (Thermal Gravimetric Analysis – TGA) and thermo-mechanical behaviour (Thermomechanical Analysis – TMA/Dynamic


Main image: Increasingly demanding material applications means


obtaining more material data more quickly, whether it be basic physical properties or complex chemical insight


April 2018 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 71


PHOTO: ZWICK ROELL


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