Lab facilities and equipment in the Department of Polymer and Plastics Engineering
The Polymer and Plastics Engineering Department in Shenkar has over 2,500 m2 of modern laboratory and production facilities, equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation.
These facilities are divided into polymer synthesis and processing, where polymers can be synthesized, modified, processed (melt and solvent) and fabricated, and into characterization facilities, where equipment dedicated to chromatography, spectroscopy, microscopy and physical testing is available.
We use a combination of technologies, instruments, analytical techniques, and methods suitable for each project and client needs.
Among the available instrumentation are:
|
Melt processing equipment |
Solvent processing equipment |
|---|---|
| Twin screw compounding | Spin coating |
| Batch Compounding with rheometry and compounding (HAAKE) |
Electro-spinning |
| Injection molding | Solvent casting |
| Film blowing (multilayer) | UV curing |
| Cast extrusion (multilayer) | Freeze-dryer (Lyophilizer) |
| Sheet extrusionPipe extrusion | Horn and bath sonicators |
| Extrusion blow molding | Mortar and pestle mill |
| Thermoforming |
Product design and engineering |
| Compression molding | 3D CAD product design software |
| High speed mixers | Melt processing simulation software and analysis |
| Bambury | Stress and failure modeling software and analysis |
| Monsanto rheometer |
Microscopy |
|
Chromatography and spectroscopy equipment |
Optical microscopy |
| Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) |
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) |
| High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) | Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) |
| Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC, SEC with Viscometry and Static Light Scattering) | Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) |
| Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC – high temperature) |
Elemental Spectroscopy |
| Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometry (UV-Vis) | Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) with SEM |
| Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) |
Mechanical, Thermal and Rheological Testing |
| Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy with attenuated total reflection (ATR-FTIR) | Tensile testers |
|
Environmental stability and degradation |
Impact testers |
| Microbial Oxidative Degradation Analyzer (MODA) | Tear testers |
| U.V. weatherometer | Yerzley - oscillograph |
| Xenon weatherometer | Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) |
| Ozone chamber | Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) |
|
Other Physical Properties Testing |
Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimetry (MDSC) |
| Density column | Thermal Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (TDMA) |
| Dielectric & loss constants | Parallel plate rheometer |
| Thermal conductivity | Capillary rheometer |
| Surface resistivity | Brabender Plastograph |
| Water vapor permeation | Melt Flow Indexer (MFI) |
| Oxygen permeation | Vicat Softening Point (VSP) |
| Contact Angle Measurement Instrument | Heat Deflection Temperature (HDT) |
|
Synthesis Lab |
Durometer – hardness |
|
Used for various types of organic reactions on grams scale. |
Abrasion tester |
|
Biomaterials lab - cell biology |
Ross flex tester |
| Class II biological hood | Compressive oscillating tester |
| CO2 incubator | |
| Fluorescent microscope | |
| Plate reader | |
| Microcentrifuge | |
| Refrigerator | |
| -80 °C freezer | |
| Cryogenic storage |