Identification of rubber & plastic materials

Smithers Rapra provides a comprehensive analytical service to Industry, educational institutions & individuals. Our information services including our extensive electronic library have references to the majority of standard materials & enable our analysts to identify a wide range of polymer materials.

The range of materials analysed include

• Thermoplastic composites
• Cured elastomers
• Thermosets & composite materials & products
• Polymer additives & compounding ingredients
• Other polymer based products including additives coatings, adhesives, inks & paints

The analytical techniques used at Smithers Rapra are constantly being reviewed & embrace new technology & developments. Principal techniques currently include:

• Spectroscopic - (FT-IR, Infrared Microspectroscopy, UV/Vis Spectroscopy)
• Chromatographic (HPLC, GPC, GC, GC-MS, LC-MS, IC)
• Thermal (DSC, TGA, DMTA, Thermal Diffusivity)
• ­­­ Analysis (ICP-OES)
• Plus - a range of wet chemical & other general, specialist or miscellaneous techniques.

Material analysis is often used to answer the following questions:

• What materials are my competitors using in their products?
• Is my material supplier providing the same material as sampled?
• Can you monitor the quality of material supplied to me by my supplier?
• What material do I need to specify for my product?
• My product is contaminated.  Can you identify the contaminant?