The failure of plastic parts or their surface coatings are generally incalculable risks for their producer. This is not only true with respect to financial aspects; they can also enduringly affect the reputation of the company. The Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid supports you in finding the root cause for a failure and presents possibilities to avoid similar problems in the future. The focus of our work is located in the area of failure analysis on injection moulded articles as well as defects connected with the surface treatment of plastic parts (e. g. electroplating, varnishing, in-mould decoration).
For this, the department’s equipment is not exhausted with the modern and manifold facilities of our own laboratory but is completed by a big circle of reliable, competent and experienced partners that cover the entire palette of relevant methods for the field of plastics and surface analytics. Our customers are informed about the results of our work in the form of a meaningful, precise and intelligible test report and, if desired, accompanied in eliminating the root cause and in the optimization of the concerned process and/or component. Contact us as a neutrally evaluating institution in the case of failures or disputes; we always have the time for a non-committal counselling interview. In this regard, discretion can be taken for granted as this is a central and indispensable part of our service.
Our laboratory is accredited according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025 since 2000. The following analytical methods and tests are available in our own house:

• Reflected and transmitted light microscopy
• SEM (Scanning electron microscopy)
• FT-IR (Infrared spectroscopy)
• FT-IR Microscopy
• UV/Vis Spectroscopy
• DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry)
• Melt volume rate (MVR) / melt flow rate (MFR) determination
• High-pressure capillary rheometer
• Determination of the viscosity number, k-values
• SEC (Size exclusion chromatography)
• Coulometric determination of layer thicknesses on electroplated parts
• Contact angle measurements for the determination of surface energies
• Determination of the Moisture content by several established methods
• Chemical resistance / environmental stress cracking tests (ESC)