Gearing Scientific Ltd

As well as supplying grams of polymer standards for research and SEC /GPC calibrations from Polymer Source Inc, Canada and American Polymer standards Inc, USA,  to many customers in Europe,  our company has years of experience in thermal testing of most materials.

Thermal conductivity of  solids from 0°C to 250°C on 6 different Lasercomp apparatus according to their form and size and compressibility.  Also Cp for non-homogeneous materials.  For liquids we can test up to 170 or 180°C subject to safety thoughts.  Rental of Lasercomp apparatus including operator training throughout Europe.

Thermal expansion of small solid samples from -150°C to 1000°C on a TMA apparatus.  (Not a dilatometer!)

DMA / DMTA (Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis) testing from -150°C upwards for the glass transitions (Tg’s) of polymers,  foodstuffs,  adhesives and composites and relative stiffness and damping at a wide range of relevant vibration frequencies.   Cure studies too.

DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) for Cp’s (specific heat), purity and melting points determination. 

TGA (Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis) for weight changes with Temperature up to 1500°C.   

Thermal Conductivity Testing

We have available 6 different apparatus for such tests - covering almost any liquid or solid material that is safe to handle (with gloves on if necessary), from -10C up to 150 or 250C.  From vacuum panels to stainless steel trough to foam samples and glass fibre mats up to a thickness of 300mm, we have a range of thermal conductivity apparatus from LaserComp Inc to test materials. Whether you’d like to simply test 10ml liquid, 760mm square foam pieces or solid polymer samples 50mm in diameter we’ve got the apparatus for it. Additionally we can also offer rapid contract testing to ISO8301, DIN52612, BS874 and EN12667-2001. In this case we offer a usual turnaround time of less than one week; please call us for competitive prices. Visit our website for more information and to see what else we do.

DMA Testing

DMA, or DMTA (Dynamic Mechanical ‘Thermal’ Analysis), is able to show far more subtle differences than other techniques employed, such as DSC or mDSC. We can look at glass transitions in a blend, composite materials or foodstuffs. We also sell material pockets for any DMA; get in touch with us if you need some for the old PL DMTAs (which went out of production over 15 years ago) - we have a few spares left! For more information please visit our website or get in touch with us; we’ll be more than happy to help in any way that we can.

Polymer Standards and Co-polymers

We can supply polymer standards and co-polymers from two main sources, as well as a range of others. For a full list of what we can supply please visit our website where you can download a Word document. These can be used in research or calibration of GPC/SEC apparatus. We also offer academic discounts to universities across Europe. Please visit our website for more information or get in touch and we’ll be more than happy to help.

Thermal Expansion Measurement

Using a pukka TA TMA apparatus, we can measure the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of most solid materials from <-100C up to almost 1000°C.   For example in some recent composite testing we had positive expansions in the x and y directions which were perpendicular to the fibres, but negative expansion (i.e. contraction) along the fibre z direction.   Normally we can turn around samples in 7-10 days and often much faster.
 

Specific Heat Testing

We can offer specific heat testing of any solid material from 0C up to >180C using special Lasercomp software on our Fox thermal conductivity apparatus with 20 to 50 gram size samples typically compared to the few milligrammes which the DSC would use so for composites not be representative.  For more information, please contact us on 01462 742007.