Plastic recycling presents many challenges across the manufacturing workflow. One of the biggest challenges is controlling the uncertainty of feedstock quality. Variations in quality arise from mixtures of different polymer types in the recycling process. This is a step-by-step guide for the quality control of recycled plastics with the NETZSCH DSC 214 Polyma.
Ever since plastics have become a popular material, manufactures have produced a total of 8.3 billion tons of virgin plastic. The production and usage of plastic has been a resounding success. However, it is alarming what is happening to the plastic that has served its time. The challenges posed by mechanical recycling can be overcome with thermal analysis.
NETZSCH thermoanalytical instruments support the processes from incoming goods inspection to optimization of the manufacturing process to quality assurance of the final product. Visit the NETZSCH booth D49 in hall 11 to talk to the thermal analysis experts and listen to our series of short talks.
Many pharmaceutical solids exhibit polymorphism, i.e., the ability of a substance to exist in different crystalline forms. The polymorphic form can have significant influence on pharmaceutical processing and can, for example, affect grinding, granulation and tabletability. A DSC measurement allows for the characterization of the present modification. Here, different modifications of paracetamol are distinguished by means of DSC.
E. Post, J. Blumm
A phase diagram portrays the equilibrium conditions between the thermodynamically separated phases or it shows which phases are present in the material system at different temperatures, pressures and compositions. Thermoanalytical methods play an important role in establishing binary and ternary phase diagrams. They are based on the principle that, when a phase transition occurs, the physical, chemical and/or structural properties change.
BLACKS Composites SRL and NETZSCH Analyzing & Testing made the next milestone in its already proven Partnership: Improving the curing of a CFRP bike rim with a simultaneous drastic reduction of the cycle time during cross-linkage. The bike rim was processed through hand lay-up technology and a subsequent autoclave curing. Saving cycle time with a better curing is not possible? It is! Based on the data of a differential scanning calorimeter and the simulation software Kinetics Neo, the cycle time was reduced by 46% compared to the cure cycle suggested by the material data sheet. Additionally, a higher degree of cure could be achieved to meet the target curing and avoiding overheating effects of the product.
Caffeine exists under 2 polymorphic forms (I and II). Compression of form I induces its transformation into form II, leading to changes in its properties. Heating with DSC ensures that caffeine is in the correct form.
How do nucleating agents influence the crystallization behavior of your polymer in the mold? To answer questions like these, the kinetics of the crystallization reaction is determined for mixtures of polypropylene with different nucleating agents. The results are used to carry out predictions on the product behavior for any temperature programs.
The database system for thermal analysis by NETZSCH, called Identify, has now (from Proteus® analysis version 8.0 or higher) already more than 2000 database entries available.
Furthermore, Identify can now be used with combined TGA+DSC, TGA-c-DTA® and STA measurements, which allows for material identification with greater certainty.
AutoEvaluation by NETZSCH is a very helpful tool for evaluation of thermoanalytical measurements. The entire measurement is evaluated by AutoEvaluation automatically and autonomously (not via pre-defined macro!) – with only one mouse click – and just within a second. AutoEvaluation is available for DSC, TGA and now also for STA measurements. Furthermore, the adaptability of AutoEvaluation is adressed.