Elastomeric gasket, what composition?

Elastomers are polymers with elastic properties, allowing them to withstand significant deformations without degrading. These materials are used to compose various products: gloves, automobile parts, window sliders, seals, etc.

The laboratory has also received seals for analysis because one of its customers was worried about whether its supplier had changed the composition of these seals.

Indeed, despite the claims of its supplier, the customer wanted to ensure that the old and new elastomer seals were of the same composition so that this change would have no impact on its production line.

Determine whether the proportion by crosslinking in a two-component epoxy adhesive

The Polymex team therefore carried out a comparative structural analysis between the two batches, and the preferred analytical technique for this case is py/gcms for verification of the polymer matrix(es) of the adjuvants present. .

The customer was right in suspecting a change in composition, because the Py/GCMS analysis revealed differences between the two elastomers:

Indeed, the old batch was composed of 97% of a polymeric matrix of the EPDM type, approximately 3% of adjuvants and less than 1% of antioxidants.

Regarding the new batch, the structural analysis revealed the presence of 94% EPDM polymer matrix and 6% adjuvants.

Antioxidants are often added to elastomers before slowing down or even inhibiting the oxidation process of the polymer and therefore aging. Their presence is therefore important and relevant.

As the analyzes revealed, the new batch does not present any anti-oxidant, which could therefore, in the long term, cause the elastomer to fail and pose a real problem for our customer.

Thanks to the analyzes and the analysis report provided by our laboratory, our customer will be able to contact his supplier to settle this setback and obtain compliant products.

Do you suspect a change in composition in your products and want to carry out a structural analysis to verify your hypothesis? Contact the Polymex laboratory!

THE OTHER MOST REQUESTED ANALYZES AT THE POLYMEX LABORATORY:

composition study of an elastomer