The range of services of the KAP

The analysis of damages, determination of causes, and development of remedial measures are one of our essential fields of activity. We offer industrial partners structured, systematic, and swift damage management for their problems. We support you with obstacles in product or process development up to damage management for field returns or complaints. Our offer ranges from trouble shooting for acute problems to investigations for sustainable clarification of extensive damage cases.

The quality of plastic products shows a very material-specific sensitivity to manufacturing influences. Design defects in the product or mould and processing parameters such as process temperatures and pressures can be reflected in inferior product quality that cannot be detected with the naked eye or conventional quality control methods. Here, tomographic, microscopic, spectroscopic and thermal analysis methods quickly help to reveal the “inner values”. A thin section, for example, can reveal product weaknesses resulting from the manufacturing process and also provide immediate indications of improvements that can often be implemented with little effort. The methods mentioned above can be supplemented by mechanical testing methods, especially if the corresponding product specifications are available.

Despite careful design and extensive experience, the suitability of new products must be tested under the intended loads. Climatic, chemical, thermal, and mechanical stresses can have unexpected effects on plastic products as a load collective, which are only limitedly predictable through experience or simulations. This also applies when a material change has been made to existing products. We test your products by developing and implementing realistic stress scenarios in close consultation with long-term tests and oscillating loads in a variety of ways.

Material identification can be important for many different reasons. Often it’s about the question of whether the right raw material was used in product manufacturing, often also about incoming goods inspections. These questions can be very simple, but can also be highly complex. Usually, a combination of infrared spectroscopic and thermal analysis is used for the solution. This provides the polymer type. If further information about additives, fillers, and reinforcing materials is required, additional thermogravimetric and spectroscopic methods are used in combination.

We offer comprehensive options for describing materials on the basis of suitable characteristic values. This includes, for example, thermal, mechanical and rheological material data, which is required to feed models for flow or structural simulation. Furthermore, such characteristic values are required for the validation of a material selection or the identification of alternative materials. In addition to the material characteristics mentioned above, we are also able to determine characteristic values for very specific requirements, such as for the description of fatigue, ageing, media resistance, permeation and migration processes.

The requirements for solving a problem are often diffuse, complex and difficult to penetrate at the beginning, so that it is unclear which methods can be used to find a solution. We also offer our services in the form of advice during this phase. We discuss your requirements with your specialists and develop solutions together. We always support you in an advisory capacity with our specific experts for all subsequent development, testing and analysis services. This gives you valuable insights for your products and concerns at the highest level. Of course, we also support you in technical discussions with your customers and suppliers. If required, we summarise our professional assessment in the form of expert opinions, which you can use to take further action.