Melt flow testing is an important part of the polymer industry but AG Fluoropolymers believes its Tinius Olsen MP600 melt flow indexers are working harder than any other machines in this sector.
AG Fluoropolymers is the world's largest producer of ETFE and also one of the world's biggest producers of PFA.
"We supply ETFE for a variety of specialist-purpose products, from the aviation and chemicals sectors through to manufacturing lightweight UV resistant film for cladding buildings" says the company's technical services manager Phil Spencer.
"Despite the variety of product uses, one of the most consistent standards used for assessing the material remains the melt flow rate.
"It's universally accepted, it has approval of standards organisations such as ASTM and ISO and it also gives a good indication of molecular weight".
Melt flow measurement of ETFE and PFE needs a machine that can handle highly corrosive polymers at flow rates from 1-43 grammes/ten minutes and work at temperatures approaching 400C.
"The Hastelloy option on the Tinius Olsen machine was essential for us," points out Spencer.
Fluoropolymers found the MP600 gets to temperature quickly and they liked the automatic lift arm for the test weight.
"We also wanted the best accuracy we could get, so we did tests on the same material here in the UK and at our facilities in Japan," explains Spencer.
The results from both machines were easily compared using the "great" software from Tinius Olsen and found to be "extremely tight" in the words of Phil Spencer.
"Both sets of results were very close and well within the acceptable limits of variation for such tests," he adds.
