Plastics laboratory services

CETEC offers a complete characterization of plastics intended to be in contact with food.

We offer from identification properties of plastics to determination of mechanical properties and composition.

We are also accredited by ENAC to perform migration tests. According to Regulation (EU) 10/2011 on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food, it is necessary to carry out a characterization of the migration of chemicals from the plastic to the food with which it will be in contact.

Global migration control is focused on verifying the inertness of the material and specific migration control to rule out toxicity problems associated with specific substances.

At CETEC we provide the plastic migration analysis service to check the safety of the use of the material for the agrifood and food industry among others uses.

Our migration test services include:

• Global migration in aqueous and fatty medium

• Global migration in vegetable oil

• Technical advice

• Advice to determine and optimize the necessary tests to demonstrate compliance with the legislation

• Resolution of technical queries related to legislation

Other services include:

Rheological properties

The rheological behaviour of polymeric materials is a crucial characteristic of their processability. At CETEC, we can analyse  the rheological properties by:

• Extrusion Platometer

  Melt mass flow rate (MFR) and Melt volume flow rate (MVR).

• Viscometry and rheometry

  Frequency, torque, angular velocity, force

Thermal properties

At CETEC we have the required equipment to develop a complete thermal analysis of plastic materials:

• Melt temperature

• Glass transition temperature

• Crystallisation temperature

• Thermal stability

Physico-chemical properties

Determination of density and hardness of plastics and rubbers

• Abrasion resistance tests

• Oxidation induction time tests

• Oxygen permeability tests

• Determination of moisture content in plastics

• Resistance to stress cracking

• Charpy-Izod impact determination

Mechanical properties

At CETEC, we can determine the mechanical properties of plastic materials by Universal Testing Machine, including analysis of tensile and compression properties.

• Tensile effort

• Deformation properties

• Young module

• Determination of flexural properties

Optical properties

At CETEC, we can determine the optical properties of the materials, including:

• Haze and UV-Visible light transmission measured by spectroscopy

  They are relevant characteristics for specific applications such as agricultural films and packaging.

• Thermicity measured by infrared spectroscopy

  It determines the capacity to retain heat. It is an important characteristic in agricultural films.

• Colour and gloss

Materials identification

We can characterize the plastics’ material composition by identifying the polymers and the content of the inorganic additives:

• Identify the nature of plastic materials in multilayer sheets

• Identification of additives in plastic materials

• Determination of contamination of polypropylene in polyethylene

• Determination of thermicity in agricultural greenhouse, by FTIR

• Thermogravimetric determination of Carbon Black

• Thermogravimetric determination of Fibreglass

• Thermogravimetric determination of Inorganic additives in plastics

• Thermogravimetric determination of Ashes in recycling

• Thermogravimetric determination of Vinyl acetate content in EVA copolymers

• Determination of heavy metals concentration