Breaking Down Thermosets

Summary Sustainable plastic production offers numerous benefits – environmental harm reduction, consumer satisfaction, demonstrating brand values, and staying ahead of government regulations. The plastics industry is embracing sustainability in every step of plastic design, production, use, and recycling. As these eco-friendly methods become more sophisticated, they will become cheaper and more efficient, thus further enhancing…

Developments in Advanced Recycling

Summary Although mechanical recycling is the dominant technology today, it is not enough to meet the plastic industry’s growing sustainability needs. Mechanical recycling requires high-quality, clean, and sorted recycled waste, which is only a small fraction of all recycled plastic. The products of mechanical recycling often have degraded properties compared to virgin polymers. In contrast,…

Advances in Biopolymers

Summary In recent years, biopolymers have risen to the forefront of discussions on sustainability in plastics. Biopolymers, both bio-sourced and biodegradable, offer the promise of being more environmentally friendly than virgin, single-use feedstock. However, biopolymers offer varying degrees of sustainability as well as unique challenges for plastic processors and manufacturers. Replacing traditional polyolefins with biopolymers…

Fingerprinting recycled thermoplastic resins for process optimisation

  Overview The ability of a material to store and transfer heat is characterized with the material properties of thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and specific heat capacity. Understanding these properties is critical when exposing a material to a wide array of temperature environments: large gradients, rapid changes, and maintaining stability, to name a few. Accurate…

Compatibilizers for Mechanical Recycling

Plastics are versatile, lightweight, and fundamental to countless products, but plastic waste poses a growing environmental threat. The plastics industry are confronting sustainability demands from consumers, brand owners, and regulations with bold innovation in material design and recycling. The leading technologies and areas of exploration in polymer sustainability are mechanical recycling, advanced recycling, biobased polymers,…

Steady State and Light Flash Methods for Measuring Thermal Diffusivity and Thermal Conductivity

  Overview The ability of a material to store and transfer heat is characterized with the material properties of thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and specific heat capacity. Understanding these properties is critical when exposing a material to a wide array of temperature environments: large gradients, rapid changes, and maintaining stability, to name a few. Accurate…

Measuring the Influence of Humidity on Material Properties

  Overview The impact of humidity on a material’s properties and performance during processing, storage, and in final form is a growing area of interest for manufacturers across many industries. A few areas of investigation of this impact include material selection and failure analysis of layered materials used with electronic circuit boards, morphological changes in…

Achieving 21CRF11 Compliance: Thermal Analysis and Rheology Data Management Through TRIOS Guardian

  Overview Guardian for TRIOS is a compliant, easy to setup, low maintenance system that uses the tools you have in place to meet the 21CFR11 requirements. In this webinar, you will learn how Guardian for TRIOS leverages existing Windows networking and file systems to give you compliance without any additional overhead associated with database…

Thermogravimetric Analysis Under Extreme Conditions

  Overview Thermogravimetry (TGA) is a classical method determining temperature dependent material properties. Traditional TGA is performed at ambient pressure and with relatively inert reaction gases. To measure application-relevant material properties, however, TGA must be performed under real application conditions: at high pressures, with reactive and/or corrosive gases and in steam atmospheres. The TGA and…