In plastics analysis, microscopic methods offer target-oriented investigation options both in the context of research and development activities and in the areas of failure analysis and quality assurance.

These include, among others:

• Determination of material and material properties
• Identification of processing errors to evaluate component quality
• Fractographic investigations
• 3D-visualised surface quantifications
• Polarisation microscopic description of internal component stresses and orientations
• Evaluation of structural component features
• Quantification of the size and distribution of fillers and reinforcing materials, pores and multiphase systems
• Volume-based component measurements and structural investigations

IKV has a comprehensive range of microscopic preparation and analysis methods that cover the entire spectrum of techniques relevant to plastics analysis. These make it possible to obtain meaningful results quickly and reliably. Careful sample preparation plays a central role in this. Through its daily involvement in public research projects and the processing of numerous industrial issues, IKV has built up a broad knowledge base that supports the rapid production of valid and meaningful test results.

The precise identification of a material is the basis for subsequent work steps and procedures in many practical areas and applications. Plastics as well as numerous other organic and inorganic substances can be identified using the following methods as indispensable tools for structure elucidation:

• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) is a generally non-destructive standard method for the material characterisation of (semi-)organic substances and thus also of plastics, coatings and contaminations.
• Energy-dispersive X-ray structure analysis (EDX) is suitable for characterising inorganic substances such as fillers. This method of near-surface elemental analysis (for elements with atomic number ≥ 6) can be carried out both at specific points and over defined areas.
• Using electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA), also known as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), an elemental analysis of the surface is carried out, which detects elements from atomic number 3 and examines the first few nanometers of the sample.

The following tasks can typically be pursued with spectroscopic methods:

• Material identification
• Quality control
• Aging condition / oxidative damage
• Identification of impurities or contamination
• Acquisition of reaction kinetics
• Surface analysis including barrier and protective layers
• Trace analysis of metal compounds such as metal oxides including their distribution

Mechanical testing is an important tool for product testing and quality assurance. To characterise the mechanical properties of construction materials, testing methods such as the tensile test, the notched bar impact test and the hardness test are fundamental and frequently used methods. The use of universal testing machines enables both standard-compliant testing processes and individualised component testing.

The test methods in the short-term test include:

• Tensile, compression and bending tests
• Torsion tests, shear tests
• Crack widening tests, tear propagation tests
• Adhesion test
• Friction test
• Compression set determination

Additional parameters influencing the plastic, such as climate and media influences, are already taken into account when designing the test and preparing the test specimens. The mechanical tests are often preceded by work in the areas of sample preparation, ageing using UV radiation and/or conditioning in climatic chambers. Furthermore, other laboratory areas are optimally equipped for a variety of long-term or dynamic tests. In all laboratory areas, tests are carried out on thermoplastics and thermosets as well as on fiber composites with extensive experience.

The diverse and informative methods of thermal analysis help to identify complex relationships between the processing, structure and properties of plastics. Thermal analysis methods can be used to identify and characterise polymers and detect processing influences and material damage.
Thermal analysis is used to determine many properties that are important for the processing and use of plastic products. These include:

• Melting temperature, melting enthalpy
• Solidification temperature
• Glass transition temperature
• Crosslinking states for thermosets and elastomers
• Qualitative and quantitative description of thermal and thermo-oxidative degradation processes
• Determination of filler and reinforcing material content
• Expansion coefficients
• Residual stresses
• Temperature-dependent modulus of elasticity under different loads

The methods are used for different materials: thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers, resin and adhesive systems, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, building materials and many more.

Knowledge of the flow behavior of plastic melts, rubber or silicone compounds and also the viscosity of resin systems is essential in order to be able to design the manufacturing processes in a targeted manner. In addition to the amount of viscosity, its elastic and viscous components can also be determined. This option provides important information, for example, about the extent to which a plastic melt reacts to a temperature increase under shear. As the viscosity of a plastic is the result of many detailed properties such as molecular weight distribution, degree of branching and additives, rheometric methods can also provide comparative evidence of batch fluctuations.

• The following properties can be described using rheometric investigations:
• Viscosity as a function of temperature, shear rate and pressure
• Elastic and ideal viscosity components of the viscosity
• Structural viscosity
• Determination of Carreau parameters
• Storage and loss moduli as a function of temperature and shear rate
• Change in a molecular structure (e.g. through degradation or cross-linking)
• Change in additivation
• Gel point or the pot life of a resin system

Oscillatory measurements in particular offer many possibilities for material characterisation. Preliminary tests are required to find a suitable individual operating point for the interaction system of rheometer and material.