Thermal analysis is a branch of material science that studies how a material’s properties change with temperature. From safe medicines to durable airplanes, countless products are made possible through thermal analysis. Understanding a material’s behavior under different temperatures is crucial for the successful design, processing, end use, and recyclability of completed products.
The glass transition temperature (Tg) is a fundamental material property for defining material integrity, manufacturing conditions, and operating guidelines across applications such as polymers, electronics, and advanced materials.
If your materials change during testing — curing, gelling, or cross‑linking — traditional step‑by‑step frequency measurements are not fast enough to keep up with rapidly changing properties. Fast frequency chirps offer the same data up to ten times faster than traditional frequency sweeps.
The aerospace industry is embracing a growing trend toward lightweighting: using lower density materials without sacrificing mechanical strength, durability, or performance. Lightweighting offers numerous benefits, including accelerated production speed, increased energy efficiency, and improved recyclability.
As the market for advanced materials continues to grow, thermal analysis becomes increasingly critical for efficient, reliable quality assurance of innovative materials.
While many instruments can measure DMA type properties (phase, tan delta, etc), many are not performing ‘real’ DMA experiments. On the surface, Dynamic Mechanical Analysis seems straightforward: apply periodic stress/strain and measure the sample’s mechanical response including the phase relationship, revealing characteristics like stiffness (storage modulus) and damping (loss modulus).
Developing high-performance materials for demanding applications requires predicting their behavior over a wide range of time scales. Rheology and DMA are powerful tools to understand and predict viscoelastic behavior, including how materials will respond to sudden forces or years of continuous use.
Heat shrink tubing appears simple at first glance: wrap it around your wires, apply a heat gun, and voila – perfectly insulated wires every time. But these tubes are more complex than they seem.
As electronic devices grow more powerful and compact, thermal management has become a critical design challenge. Central to this challenge are Thermal Interface Materials (TIMs)—specialized materials engineered to enhance heat transfer between high-power electronic components and heat-dissipating surfaces.
Polymer rheology plays a critical role in understanding the flow behavior and viscoelastic properties of polymers across the supply chain. Whether in polymer manufacturing, compounding, conversion, or recycling, precise rheological measurements are essential for optimizing processing conditions, ensuring product quality, and preventing defects.
Will your paint stick to the wall or drip off? Does your low-fat cream cheese have the same texture as a full-fat version? How will new ingredients affect your formulation’s texture and application, especially as environmental conditions change? Rheology offers invaluable insights that help researchers, developers, and engineers across numerous industries optimize their products for performance and customer satisfaction.
Mechanical testing supports material and product innovation across a variety of industries and applications, from testing the long-term durability of dental implants during chewing to predicting how a car part will bend during an accident. Learn how the latest technology advances mechanical testing to better support cutting-edge product development.