Polymer Testing Newsletters

Welcome to the October 2008 newsletter and in fact to the tenth anniversary of the business. Yes, in 1998 the business was created following a realisation that the expertise now offered was in short supply. The business has gone from strength to strength, worked for many of the industries top companies, gained a DTI sponsored R&D award and patent, together with ISO901:2000 registration, along the way. Back in ’98 the Compuplast distributorship was yet to be introduced, so in 2005 following the retirement of the former agent, Symbolic Systems, Don Fleming was pleased to take up the opportunity to be involved with arguably the world’s most forward thinking and reactive extrusion flow simulation company. As computing power has increased, the range of processes now available for simulation has increased likewise, and with the skill of the Compuplast team, many can now be visualised on a scale unthinkable only a few years ago. Much of the new techniques installed (DSC & TGA) have come from a need to provide the Compuplast programs with the data they require for such simulation. Together with the existing shear, extensional viscosity and melt density, capability, DSC now allows Tm, Tf, Cp and Hf values to be imported. These extra values are essential for a comprehensive characterisation of a customer’s polymer the ever increasing complexity of today’s polymer grades, with their unique additive packages makes book values rather unrealistic. The ability to measure these values in-house has been a great assest in characterising exactly a clients proprietory grade. As ever, the business looks to see what technique may be of interest to the client base, so if you have any thoughts don't hesitate to contact us. Another benefit of the introduction of DSC has been the ability to determine the ejection and transition temperatures for our clients using Moldflow. Please read on to see what has been happening over the last month or so and what is in the pipeline.

Welcome to the March 2008 edition of the FlemingPTC newsletter and again many thanks are extended to all those who made the last two months as interesting as usual. January saw Don Fleming attend the annual Compuplast agents and distributors meeting where VEL 6.2 was introduced together with the new Injection Moulding Plastification Program. The DSC was also in much demand seeing use in characterising a range of polymers for melt temperature Tm, crystallisation temperature, Tf, heat of fusion, Hf, and with the addition of a new sapphire reference disc, specific heat capacity, Cp. Fleming PTC now has the capability to provide all of this data in-house under ISO9001:2000, which greatly expands the service and provides a one-stop-shop approach to characterisation and flow simulation. Gas switching to provide oxidative behaviour using the TGA is also under consideration, so please read on, and as usual, do not hesitate to call for further insight.

First and foremost, welcome back to everyone who made 2007 such a successful year, we hope all have enjoyed the Christmas and New Year break and return suitably refreshed for the challanges of 2008! All of the techniques saw action in 2007 and especially pleasing was the uptake of the new thermal analysis techniques, DSC and TGA. These were added to the test portfolio in order to expand the service and offer the facility of a more complete characterisation, and the last quarter activity seems to bear out the necessity for this kind of test. Please read on to see in more detail some of the highlights of the last quarter.

Welcome to the new look October 2007 newsletter and website. In this and future issues you will be able to keep abreast of developments at Fleming PTC, what has been achieved and what is in the pipeline, and most importantly how this can benefit your business. In this issue Don Fleming introduces two important additions to the service DSC and TGA. Also, new developments at Compuplast and gaining ISO9001:2000 accreditation together with a reminder of the core activities. We hope you find this newsletter informative, and as ever, thank our customers for the opportunity to share in their success.