A TV commercial for a car company used to say “Quality is Job One.” I’m not sure why they stopped using that line, because I cannot imagine a manufacturing environment where Quality isn’t Jobs One through Five.
At PMC Polymer Products, we adhere to a strict philosophy of building quality assurance into the manufacturing process. That starts with labs certified to ISO 9001:2008 standards and includes sizable capital investments in our plant to guarantee consistency to customer specifications.
Our customers trust us to adhere to their strict specifications because they know we test materials during every stage of production. Unlike some in the plastics industry, we are able to perform continuous testing because our testing is conducted on-site.
Here is a partial list of testing our customers have come to expect from PMC Polymer Products:
- Instron Instrument – Measure tensile strength (& elongation) – stretch until bar breaks
- Flex Modulus – Resistance to bending
- Izod Impact – Measure resistance to breaking
- Electrostatic Testing for Anti-Stat and Conductive products
- Measure electrical surface resistance of product
- Critical for performance when letdown to make film for anti-static bags (Example: computer parts bags)
- Products are designed not to allow for build-up of static charge.
- XRF Spectrophotometer
- Measures chemical components via elemental analysis to assure proper composition to meet customer’s requirements. Used to monitor flame retardant chemicals in products.
- Specific Gravity
- Used to aid in measuring level of components in products. Number relates directly to densities of materials used to make products.
- Colorimeter
- Uses reference standards to meet the customer’s exact “color matching” for his product.
- Convection Oven
- Used to dry a known amount of sample to determine moisture content (weighing before and after). “Loss on Drying”.
- Muffle Furnace – For measurement of inorganic content in compounds and masterbatches.
- Nitrogen Analyzer
- Measures nitrogen content of a material. We use this to measure the level of antistatic “active” compound in our product.
- Melt Index
- Products of correct make-up will have characteristic flow properties when heated. Affected by the type of plastic used and materials compounded into the resin.
- Flammability Testing
- UL-94 & 5VA (Underwriters Laboratories)
- Testing performed in accordance with current Underwriters Laboratories standard using Atlas HVUL2 burn chamber.
- Participate in quarterly Underwriters Laboratories inspection with sample submittal and confirmation testing conducted by UL.
- Test bars made of specific size and dimensions. Flame of proper design applied to bars for established times. How material burns is recorded and this determines the flammability rating: V-0, V-1 or V-2
- All production lots tested to confirm compliance with UL rated designated prior to release.
- LOI
- Limiting Oxygen Index: The percentage of oxygen in an oxygen / nitrogen mixture required to support combustion under specified test conditions.
- HDT/VICAT
- Heat Distortion Temperature / Vicat Softening Temperature: Gives an indication of the temperature at which a part begins to soften or bend under weight.
- Xenon Arc Weatherometer / QUV Weatherometer
- Accelerated weathering instruments for evaluation of the effects of UV, heat, and condensation on the color and overall stability of a material.
- Banbury / Brabender
- Laboratory-scale compounding equipment for preliminary product development formulating.
- Sterling Extruder
- 1” single-screw extruder for small-scale lab letdowns of concentrates
