Exclusive Distributor of Stable Micro System's Texture Analyzers in North America

Foods

Films + Film Texture Testing

Texture testing instruments to measure and analyze films used in adhesive, pharmaceutical and packaging applications.

Texture Analyzers and testing instruments for measuring the textural and physical characteristics of films across a wide variety of industries.

Texture Technologies distributes the Stable Micro Systems’ family of texture analysis instruments which are extremely easy-to-use and very flexible, providing accurate and reproducible test results. The TA.XTPlus, TA.HDPlus, and TA.XTExpress Texture Analyzers are simple to calibrate and easy to validate, offering researchers and engineers more than traditional test methods. The TA.XTPlus can be used to conduct standard ASTM D882 tensile testing, and the analysis of the generated plots can be automated to report exactly the attributes called out by the standard. While the D882 standard calls for separating at a fixed rate of speed, the TA.XTPlus is also capable of performing constant strain rate tensile (or compression) tests. Constant strain rate tests highlight other elastic properties of films.

Meanwhile, the TA.XTPlus is also the right choice for conducting a number of other film properties tests including the following:

    Among the more common gels tested are:

  • Film Relaxation and Creep Testing - Many films are used under a constant stress, load or pressure. While films are traditionally measured for their firmness and possibly their stiffness (modulus), any lab just using ASTM D882 would have no idea of how their films retain energy and otherwise behave under stress. Relaxation and creep tests are very useful to understand the nature and durability of the cross-linking as films are produced.
  • Film Brittleness Testing - Films are notoriously difficult to manufacture consistently on either a lab bench or in production environment. If just a single aspect of the manufacturing process is different the distribution of solids or the cure patterns can be different - and the results are all over the place. ASTM D882 tests generate extremely variable results - almost as much due to operator mounting and sample presentation differences than formulation differences. With the TA.XTPlus film testing techniques do not have the same variability - and thus those brittle behaviors are more easily discerned and attributed to formulations rather than operators. The TA.XTPlus captures data very quickly and plots it at up to 500 points per second - as a result those brittle behaviors are capable of being fully captured and analyzed.
  • Film Burst Testing - Texture Technologies’ TA-108s Film Rig is used to measure film's behavior before and after being stretched beyond its point of plastic deformation or burst point. The same rig allows you to quantify the returned energy and the film's complete recovery behavior. The rig is available in for mounting single samples, 5 samples or 60 samples.
  • Film Adhesion and Cohesion Testing - Adhesion and tack characteristics are critical for most film applications. These parameters are measured using a half dozen metrics which differentiate even the most subtle film formulations. The results lead to a film adhesion vs. film cohesion analysis, a critical element for proper film formulation.
  • Film Fatigue Testing - Films can be mounted very creatively in both compression and tension to then be repeatedly stressed to measure their fatigue characteristics.
  • Film Swelling & Disintegration Testing - Some of the most interesting insights our clients gain about their films are about how the films swell and disintegrate over time while being exposed to or submerged in moisture. The TA.XTPlus can very precisely measure how films and film coated materials swell - withstand swelling - disintegrate - or withstand disintegrating.
  • Film Conductivity - By using the Resistance Conversion Unit in conjunction with the TA.XTPlus Texture Analyzer's multi-channel data acquisition capability enables the characterization of electro-mechanical products by measuring and analyzing the force-distance and resistance-distance characteristics simultaneously.
  • Film To Film Adhesion - Film to film adhesion can be measured using a block method, even if the films have very little residual tack. The method tacks advantage of the TA.XTPlus' 1 micron distance resolution and is precise PID controls to maintain a controlled bonding profile before debonding and measuring the tack between two films.
  • Film To Tablet Adhesion - It is possible to debond film coatings from pharmaceutical tablets by using either SMS' Tablet Adhesion Rig or the Fassihi Method.