Newest instrument promises fast and accurate measurement of water vapour permeability with a technique said to be superior to conventional gravimetric measurement
Versaperm is launching what it says is an entirely new instrument for the fast and accurate measurement of water vapour permeability.
Water vapour is omnipresent and highly invasive.
The Versaperm WVTR (water vapour transmission) MK VI meter is designed for use in the lab where its highly automated computerised control can cope with several samples at a time - and still give a reading in as little as 30 minutes for some materials.
The conventional gravimetric measurement technique takes several days and gives significantly less accurate/reproducible results, says the company.
Additionally the instrument can be configured to measure the diffusion rates of most gaseous elements (water, O2, CO2 etc).
The MK VI needs very little re-calibration and requires, at most, minimal training to give results that can be accurate to better than one part per million (with some samples a few parts per hundred million).
Sensitivities are typically in the range 0.05-3200g/m2/day.
A wide variety of options is available, depending on the specific applications, but both single and multi-sample systems, plus a range of measurement chambers and sensors can be supplied for testing samples from the size of a thimble up to a pallet load and beyond.
As well as vapour transmission, the equipment can be used to measure the equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) of substances - that might otherwise be decomposed by normal water content measuring techniques.
The company also operates a laboratory service to measure permeability for companies where the volume or logistics of measurements does not demand a dedicated instrument.
