Change is underway – thanks to a shifting perspective and evolving consumer sentiments, virgin resins are being surpassed by post-consumer recycled material (PCR). This move has implications across the entire plastic value chain, from polymer manufacturers to compounders/masterbatchers and converters. However, when compared to virgin resins, PCR feedstock has its own issues – such as being inherently variable and prone to contamination.

In this hour-long webinar, industry experts explore viable solutions, such as fingerprinting recycled resin feedstock by measuring polymer properties like crystallinity, viscosity and processing temperature. By doing so, you’ll discover how batch-to-batch variations in recycled resin composition affect thermoplastic processing. In addition, they’ll show how it is possible to harness the insights provided by thermal analysis and rheology data to take control of your processing conditions, resulting in the delivery of consistent product performance.

By the end of this webinar recording, you will have learned…

  • How to measure fundamental material properties like melting region, crystallinity and heat of fusion relevant to processing conditions
  • To quantify flow properties critical to injection moulding and extrusion processes
  • Ways to monitor the effects of thermal history on product quality, allowing you to take the relevant corrective measures

Portrait photo of Els Verdonck, Senior applications scientist at TA Instruments

Speaker: Els Verdonck

Els Verdonck is a senior applications scientist with TA Instruments, based in Belgium. She received her degree in chemical engineering and her PhD from Brussels University (VUB) in Belgium, where she specialised in polymer characterisation. Her research was focused on studying interphasial effects in composites and investigating thermoset cure kinetics.

Verdonck joined TA Instruments in 1998,  providing application support and training to customers as well as organising material characterisation seminars.

 

Portrait photo of Terri Chen, Principal applications engineer at TA Instruments

Speaker: Terri Chen

Terri Chen is a principal applications engineer at TA Instruments, supporting rheology and DMA. Chen received her PhD in polymer science and material engineering from Sun Yat-sen university in China, specialising in polymer synthesis and characterisation. She then moved to the university of Maryland, US, where she was first a postdoc researcher and later a research assistant professor in biopolymer modification and analysis.

Chen joined TA Instruments in 2004, providing customers with support, consultation and training. She has more than 50 publications in peer reviewed journals and possesses two US patents.

Logo for Waters Corporation / TA Instruments

TA Instruments is the world leader in manufacturing industry-leading systems for thermal analysis, rheology, microcalorimetry and mechanical analysis. We offer innovative and reliable instruments that help scientists in top laboratories test the physical properties of their materials. Our instruments contribute to leading discoveries in medicine, materials science, electronics and other areas of science devoted to improving our world.

TA Instruments is a division of Waters Corporation.

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