Laboratory of Physical-Chemical Properties of Materials

This specific laboratory has advanced equipment for the identification and characterization of plastic materials and food, where mechanical, barrier, thermal and optical properties are analyzed. The main teams are:

Universal Test Machine

This equipment evaluates mechanical properties tensile strength, coefficient of friction, seal strength and rolling. It also determines the strength compression of finished containers.

Differential Sweep Calorimeter (DSC)

With this equipment can be determined at the melting point of plastic materials, for the identification of materials and behavior against different temperatures.

Oxygen Permeability Meter

This equipment determines the transmission of oxygen (OTR) through plastic films at specified relative temperature and humidity. Designed to comply with ASTM D3985 – 05 (Reapproved 2010) – "Standard Test Method for Oxygen Gas Rate Transmission Through Plastic Film and Sheeting Using a Coulometric Sensor"

Moisture Permeability Meter

This equipment determines the transmission of water or moisture vapour (WVTR) through plastic films at specified relative temperature and humidity. Designed to comply with ASTM F1249 - 13"Standard Test Method for Water Vapor Transmission Rate Through Plastic Film and Sheeting Using a Modulated Infrared Sensor"

Climate Chamber

This equipment allows the study of storage under controlled temperature and humidity conditions, simulating climatic storage conditions.

Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectrometer

Infrared spectroscopy is one of the techniques for material identification by comparing its spectrum with reference materials stored in a database. Polymers, plastics, inorganic solids, minerals, catalysts, composite materials can be analyzed among others.

Thermogravimetric Calorimeter (TGA)

TGA is mainly used for material characterization in terms of their thermal composition.