Quick and accurate testing of plastics

TTC offers „one-stop“ service

New Thermoplastics Testing Center (TTC) offers service that pays for itself.

During the past years the productivity of the Thermoplastics Testing Center of Bayer MaterialScience AG has been increased significantly by automation of processes. Companies involved in compounding, extrusion and injection molding, as well as raw materials producers and automotive manufacturers and their suppliers, can now benefit from this productivity, too. The Thermoplastics Testing Center (TTC) - the restructured former technical service laboratory at the Bayer site in Krefeld-Uerdingen - now offers all its external and internal customers a "one-stop" service which, in addition to around 200 different tests for thermoplastics, also covers the production of granules and test pieces. "We provide highest quality testing, rapid processing of orders and offer a competitive price-performance ratio," is how Dr. Bahman Sarabi, Head of the TTC, sums up the customer benefit.
The new center has complete production lines which enable the compounding of ABS and its blends, polycarbonates and industrial thermoplastics in quantities ranging from 1.3 to 100 kilograms. Production of test pieces is carried out using fully automated injection molding machines. Around 100 different injection molds are available for virtually every testing procedure in accordance with ISO (International Organization for Standardization), UL (Underwriters Laboratories) and CAMPUS (Computer Aided Material Preselection by Uniform Standards). The TTC carries out the currently applicable tests for all major plastics applications, with standard thermoplastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene being just as welcome as materials for testing as high-performance thermoplastics. The key to the excellent service at the TTC is systematic automation. Furthermore, the use of robots and state-of-the-art machinery contributes to precision and very good test reproducibility. For example, in the test for modulus of elasticity in tension, the test pieces are always clamped automatically in such a way that the forces acting on them are absolutely centrical, which is a key condition when it comes to determining the stiffness of the material being tested.
In accordance with ISO/IEC 17025, the TTC has the expertise to carry out selected physical-technological tests on plastics as confirmed by the German Accreditation System for Testing. For the first time in Germany so far, the accreditation also includes the compounding of thermoplastics and injection molding of test pieces. In addition, the world's foremost and largest testing organization, UL, has issued the center with a quality certificate for fire, aging, weathering and electrical tests.