Material Testing

Plastic Product Analysis

EUROLAB is a reliable plastics testing and plastic analysis provider in a wide variety of industries and applications. Plastics are part of everything we do, from the cars we use to the containers we use to eat in those cars; From the cables surrounding our electrical wires to the pipes that bring water to our taps. It is essential to predict how plastic will behave under a wide variety of conditions and to discover why plastic fails.

Plastik Ürün Analizleri

Reliable quality control is essential to ensure a cost-saving production of high-quality plastic products. Microscopic and ATR FTIR provides a FT-IR spectroscopy-based solution for powerful routine quality control of incoming goods, intermediates and end products.

In case of any product defect, an effective failure analysis is required to understand the source of the error. The FT-IR microscope is a valuable analytical tool for troubleshooting as it allows to determine the chemical composition of the smallest structures.

Additionally, Microscopic FT-IR and DT / TGA are a useful tool for product development and reverse engineering, as they provide information on the chemical composition of micometer-scale materials and products.

  • Quality control
  • Failure analysis
  • Product development
  • Reverse engineering

There are many reasons why people need scientific testing and analysis of plastic samples. Some common needs for plastic testing include:

  • Testing plastic products before expanding production.
  • Testing for health and safety regulations.
  • Test of strength, flexibility, durability and longevity.
  • Tests to determine why plastic materials and plastic products fail.

Some common needs for plastic analysis include:

  • Analyzing products to determine what the plastic is made of - the number of ingredients in the clear water bottle plastic.
  • Tests of food packaging to ensure it does not contaminate or break food when frozen or microwaved.
  • How long will plastic pipes last when buried underground or inside the walls of a new house.
  • Which is the best combination of materials for producing safe and long-lasting automobile tires.

IR technique, GC / LC MS MS technique, can be universally applied for chemical analysis regardless of the shape and composition of the sample:

  • Plastics
  • Polymers (Thermoplastics, Elastomers, Rubbers)
  • monomers
  • Additives
  • Fillers
  • Pellets
  • Powders
  • Liquids
  • Fibers
  • Movies
  • Parts
  • laminates

Plastics are used in numerous products such as automotive parts, packaging materials, household appliances, electrical appliances or textiles. Most of today's plastics are complex multi-component systems made from various compounds such as different polymers, fillers, and additives. Systematic selection and blending of these ingredients in suitable mixtures results in materials with optimized properties.

As high product quality at a low price is a fundamental requirement in modern industry, reliable quality control is imperative. An important step to a smooth waste-free production process is verifying the correct identity of incoming raw materials. Next, the correct composition in the final plastic product must be checked to ensure the correct properties.

Authentication of incoming raw materials: An IR spectrum is measured and compared with spectra from reference materials to verify the correct identity of an incoming material. High correlation of the reference spectrum of the same material with the sample spectrum confirms the correct identity.

Differentiate polymer types

Differentiation of polyamides: Polyamides are thermoplastic polymers composed of monomers combined with an amide bond. The polyamide group includes many different polymers with different chemical and physical properties. Despite the high similarity in their chemical structures, IR spectroscopy allows differentiation between various polyamides such as PA6, PA6.6, PA10 and PA12.

Differentiation of HDPE and LDPE:

Polyethylene (PE) is the most produced polymer in the world. High density PE is used for bottles, cans, while plastic films and bags are made from low density PE. The IR spectrum contains information that allows differentiation of low density and high density PE.

Measure fillers and additives

Quantification of fillers, additives and mixtures:

They are multi-component systems made from modern plastics, polymers, fillers, plasticizers and compatibilizers. Determining the right composition is an important part of quality control. The IR spectrum allows measurement of individual components based on calibrations.

Check the correct handling of your product

Checking the curing of the varnish:

The material properties of modern paints and varnishes are critically affected by the curing process. FT-IR spectroscopy allows to quickly and reliably measure the degree of curing of paints, varnishes and the like. A quantitative conclusion can be drawn about the curing state of the sample in just one minute.

Control of coatings on metallic materials:

Polymeric coatings are used to protect the surfaces of metals, ceramics and other materials from corrosion. Also, the properties of the surfaces can be defined by suitable coatings, eg roughness, visual appearance, adhesiveness.

IR analysis allows to check the presence of the correct coating material on a variety of substrates. In addition, the homogeneity of the coating can be determined.

Simple and fast analysis

The measurement interface of the FTIR instrument for polymer analysis is a diamond ATR crystal. Its mechanical and chemical strength also allows the analysis of reactive liquid samples such as monomers and very hard plastics such as polycarbonate. The ATR (Attenuated Total Reflection) technique is very convenient and fast as it requires almost no sample preparation. It doesn't matter whether the analysis needs to be done on pellets, films, plastic parts, powders or liquids: the sample only needs to be contacted with the ATR crystal to record the IR spectrum.

After measurement, the sample is identified by automatically comparing its spectrum with spectral data from reference materials.

Error Analysis in Plastic Components

The failure of polymer and plastic materials is often caused by the non-homogeneous distribution of the components used in the polymeric material. Also, contamination such as particles, fibers, or debris can be the cause of its failure. Defective layers in composite materials or a layer made of the wrong material will adversely affect product properties. Because such defects are often extremely minor, they are difficult or even impossible to analyze with a macroscopic measurement. However, a successful failure analysis involves chemical analysis of the defective site in the sample.

The FT-IR microscope is a powerful tool for failure analysis: It allows obtaining IR spectra anywhere in the sample with high lateral resolution, thereby revealing the chemical composition of this particular area of ​​the sample.

  • Wrong composition
  • inclusion
  • Blooming
  • Contaminations

Chemical analysis of product defects

Example for product defect analysis by microscopic FT-IR: One batch of polyethylene pellets contains unwanted brown inclusions. The microscopic visual image of a polyethylene pellet with brown inclusions is shown along with the positions of the IR analysis:

The IR spectra show clearly different properties on the PE pellet matrix (blue spectrum) and unknown inclusion (red spectra). Searching in a spectral library defines inclusion as a polyester (PET):

Chemical Hazardous Content Analysis

Plastic materials can be multi-component products, as well as materials suitable for the use of harmful chemicals. It may contain chemicals such as Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb), phthalate, which are harmful to human health.

In plastic material analysis, harmful chemicals are detected with devices such as GC-MS and LC MS / MS such as DMFu, Phthalate, Cadmium, PAH, Chromium VI, Heavy Metals, Free Phenol, PVC, Bisphenol A (BPA) etc. Detection of chemicals such as.

You can work with our laboratory EUROLAB for quality control of your plastic products.

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