Typical physical (and partly also chemical) tests on polymer materials:

  • Mass flow rate of the melt (MFR);
  • Vicat softening temperature (VST);
  • density;
  • degree of cross-linking;
  • thermal stability;
  • Permeation of gases (e.g. oxygen, hydrogen, methane, CO2) and liquids;
  • volatile matter/water content;
  • Soot/pigment dispersion.
  • FTIR spectroscopy (with more than 200,000 reference spectra) and ATR, diffusion reflection, pyrolysis-FTIR
  • Gas chromatography
  • Extraction and identification of additives
  • Determination of the resistance to hydrolysis of acetals, nylons, polyesters, etc.
  • Oxidation induction time (OIT) and other differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
  • Thermal stability
  • Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)
  • Viscosity and porosity
  • microscopy.

Typical mechanical tests on plastic pipes, fittings and other products:

  • Resistance to internal hydrostatic pressure;
  • resistance to slow crack growth (SCG, cone test, PENT, FNCT, CRB and strain hardening test);
  • resistance to rapid crack propagation (RCP-S4);
  • drop, impact and bending test;
  • impact tensile test;
  • tensile tests (also at elevated temperatures up to 150 °C;
  • decohesion and peel tests;
  • Constant load tests on pipe segments at elevated temperature to determine the remaining service life of polymers
  • Effects of global warming.

Kiwa supports you with an independent assessment of the quality of polymer products.