MatX Lab characterizes plastics and elastomers so you can identify an unknown resin or compound, verify a formulation, confirm thermal and mechanical properties, check cure and aging, or work out why a part cracked, hardened, or degraded. You end up knowing what the material is, what's in it, and why it behaved the way it did.
The datasheet doesn’t provide information about how the polymer fails. Yet a resin change, a missing additive, an incorrectly made transition, a poor curing process, or aging in use: any of these will transform a component that passes the test into a failure in service, and none of these is visible in the chemistry alone.
MatX Lab characterizes plastics and elastomers so you can identify an unknown resin or compound, verify a formulation, confirm thermal and mechanical properties, check cure and aging, or work out why a part cracked, hardened, or degraded. You end up knowing what the material is, what's in it, and why it behaved the way it did.
Most plastics and elastomers work is one of three questions: what is this, what's in it, and why did it behave that way? We identify the base polymer and get most of the way through the formulation. We measure the thermal and mechanical properties that actually govern how a part performs. In rubber, we look at cure state and how far aging has gone. And when something has failed, we work out why. It's the same set of methods either way, whether you're checking an incoming lot or pulling a compound apart.
Polymer work usually combines an identity method with thermal and mechanical characterization, and elastomers add cure and aging tests. We scope the combination your question needs, and each method below links to its own page.
FTIR and Raman identify the base resin or elastomer and pick up many of the additives. It's the quickest way to confirm what a material is, match it against a reference, or catch a substitution.
Measures glass transition, melting, crystallinity, cure state, and filler content by DSC and TGA. These transitions show whether the material was formulated and processed correctly and how it behaves with temperature.
Regarding plastics, tensile, flexural, and impact properties are measured. For elastomers, we measure hardness, elongation, tear strength, and compression set. These tell you whether a part meets its mechanical specification.
Density, melt flow, and viscosity control how a material processes and how consistent your parts come out. We measure all three and characterize cure behavior in rubber compounds.
In this, fillers, pigments, and inorganic contaminants get identified. This is what carries DE formulation and contamination work past the point a spectrum alone can take it.
Evaluates how elastomers hold up under heat, fluid immersion, and ozone exposure. These exposures determine sealing performance and service life.
Microscale imaging shows morphology, fracture surfaces, filler dispersion, and contamination. It tells you how a part was built and how it came apart.
This determines if a part failed by environmental stress cracking, thermal or UV degradation, heat aging, ozone attack, a molding defect, or a formulation change, and reports the root cause with supporting evidence.
Plastics and elastomers testing serves the industries that mould, bond, seal, or otherwise depend on polymer parts. In those settings, a resin substitution, a missed additive, or a compound that ages poorly can end up as a field failure.
Automotive · Electronics · Medical Devices · Manufacturing · Polymers · Advanced Materials · Energy
Polymer testing is method-driven, and your specification usually names the standard. Where an applicable standard exists, testing is aligned to it and cited in your report. We align to the method your specification requires and document it.
| Analysis / Standard | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| Moisture Content of Plastics | Wet Chemistry & Titrimetric Analysis |
| GPC | Gel Permeation Chromatography |
| 3-Point Flexure Test on Plastics | Flexural & Bend Testing |
| Rheology | Rheology & Melt Flow |
| VOC | Volatile Organic Compound |
| Ash Content | Wet Chemistry & Titrimetric Analysis |
| Analysis of Polysiloxanes | Optical & Emittance Spectroscopy |
| ASTM D696 | Linear Thermal Expansion of Plastics |
| ASTM D6370 | Compositional Analysis of Rubber by Thermogravimetry (TGA) |
| ASTM D5026 | Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Plastic in Tension |
| ASTM D5023 | Dynamic Mechanical Testing of Plastics |
| ASTM D1921 | Particle Size (Sieve Analysis) of Plastic Materials |
| ASTM C371 | Wire-Cloth Sieve Analysis of Nonplastic Ceramic Powders |
| ASTM D7426 | Glass Transition Temperature (Tg) of Polymers & Elastomers by |
| ASTM D7399 | Amount of Polypropylene (PP) in Polypropylene/LDPE Mixtures using Infrared |
Yes. Spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and elemental analysis together identify the base resin or elastomer and reconstruct much of a formulation, including fillers and additives. Deformulation is one of our most common polymer requests.
Yes. We determine whether the cause was environmental stress cracking, thermal or UV degradation, heat aging, ozone attack, a formulation change, or a molding defect, combining spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and fractography. Send the failed part unaltered, with a good part if you have one.
Yes. Thermal analysis reads cure state and composition. Heat aging, fluid immersion, and ozone testing show you how a compound holds up once it's in service. We report the results against your own acceptance criteria.
MatX Lab sends and receives testing for each method from the trusted partner laboratories that are best suited to do it, so identification, thermal, mechanical, and aging work on your plastics and elastomers run as one program. You work with one contact and receive one report. Methods are aligned to ASTM, ISO, IEC, UL, and MIL-STD where a published method applies. MatX Lab is an analysis provider, not a standards body, and issues no certifications. Every engagement can sit under an NDA.
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