Misc. Equipment for Custom Testing

When a material is put under a constant load, it deforms continuously until the load is removed (or the material fails completely). This deformation over time is called “creep” and it is the result of the materials properties, the weight of the load, the temperature of the surrounding environment, and the length of time the load remains on the material. The rate of creep helps in determining the overall strength of a material.

A material is greatly affected when a load/stress is initially placed on it, then over time the material relaxes into its “new normal” of existing under this load/stress. Measuring the rate at which a material makes this adjustment is called a stress relaxation test, and it is important in helping to determine the materials overall strength characteristics.

Oscillatory testing is a general term covering a range of tests that can be deployed to characterize and quantify the presence, rigidity and integrity of a material’s internal structure resulting from the interaction of dispersed particles or droplets, or cross-linking and entanglement of dissolved polymers.

Oscillatory frequency sweeps identify the nature of the structures present in a fluid. The sample is exposed to small-deformation oscillations covering a range of frequencies to assess the structural response to deformations of longer or shorter timescales. This technique can prove a useful tool when attempting to match textures and flow behaviours in thickened systems.

Oscillation stress and strain sweeps provide information on the rigidity and strength of the soft-solid structures which impart critical quality attributes. The sample is subjected to small amplitude oscillatory (i.e. clockwise then counter clockwise) force. The test stress starts sufficiently low to preserve structure but as the test progresses, the increasing stress ultimately causes the disruption of structure manifested as a decrease in elasticity and an accompanying decrease in rigidity.

Flowability testing helps to determine if, and how, a powder or granular material flows out of a funnel shape. This test measures the strength that a powder gains when it is subjected to a consolidating stress. A powder will flow from the container if the force acting on it is greater than the unconfined yield strength.

Oscillation  Temp. Ramp & Sweep

Multi-Wave frequency sweep

Our laboratory’s plastic injector ball mill size capabilities range from 50 ml to 250 ml. Size reductions are done by impact as the balls drop near the top of the shell. This equipment will create simple plastic injection molded items. These items can be used for testing of the plastic compound itself, the items, or the packaging (either made of these items or made to surround them).

The extremely high centrifugal forces of a planetary ball mill result in very high pulverization energy and therefore short grinding times.

Samples introduced into the hopper are swept around by a rotor with blades until cut/ground to sufficient fineness that they pass through the sieve at the bottom of the hopper into the top of the delivery tube. The hard steel cutting edges on the blades allow for the milling of a wider range of materials, including plastics, animal feed, bones, cables, cardboard, electronic scrap, feed pellets, foils, food, leather, material mixtures, non-ferrous metals, paper, pharmaceutical products, refuse derived fuels, rubber, waste, wood, and much more.

Allows the use of high temperatures on specimens in a safely contained environment.

This machine rapidly rotates and applies centrifugal force to its contents. It is most typically used to separate fluids, or different densities of liquids, from solids. The centripetal acceleration causes denser substances and particles to move outward in a radial direction, while less dense objects move to the center. It is important to keep the centrifuge evenly balance during use.

The Mini DeBEE provides a product developer with a high level of flexibility and ease when formulating new emulsions and dispersions – including cell ruptures. This is capable of producing unmatched results in the mixing, blending, and size reduction of samples. Through a unique high pressure system, the product is pumped out at a high-velocity, while inside the emulsifying cell, the product experiences the forces of shear, cavitation, impact break, and mix and blend – this produces a thoroughly mixed product with significantly smaller particles and uniform distribution.

Luminometers are used to measure the chemical marker adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which is a compound found in all types of plant, animal and microbial cells. When it comes to water, you can figure out the size of the microbial population present in a sample based on how much light is produced when ATP reacts with the enzyme luciferase. The light that the reaction between these two produces can be measured by a luminometer. The amount of light generated is directly proportional to how much ATP is present — which basically shows the level of biological contamination in the sample.

Used for the efficient and gentle removal of solvents from samples through evaporation. Careful application also allows removal of a solvent from a sample containing a liquid compound if there is minimal co-evaporation (azeotropicbehavior), and a sufficient difference in boiling points at the chosen temperature and reduced pressure.

Uses ultra-sonication to agitate particles in a sample for purposes such as the production of nanoparticles, biofuels, cell disruption, etc.

This press is capable of compression modeling and polymer sheet / film preparation. It is used for specialized or short-run production situations and quality control tests. These presses are in daily use for numerous applications in the chemical, physical, biological and mechanical fields.