Plastics play an important role in food packaging, with safety at the forefront. Plastic packaging serves the purpose of helping people gain access to items they need while preventing tampering and ensuring product consistency. Packaging can be defined in three levels: primary packaging is used to encase food or pharmaceutical products, secondary packaging is usually …

Summer means sun, sandals, and always working in the background… science. Let’s take a break from our summer read, and read about how Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) can assure that footwear designers keep you comfortable. Traditionally, natural materials such as wood, cork, and leather were used to construct sandals, shoes and boots, but synthetic …

As awareness around the problems of plastic pollution and microplastics grows, various manufacturers are focusing on developing compostable and biodegradable polymer materials. Two examples of promising renewable polymers are polyhydroxybutyric acid co 3-hydroxyvaleric acid, or PHBV and poly(lactic acid), or PLA. Both materials are produced with products of fermentation and are compostable. The structure of …

Polymers are in use in almost every industry today. With such a wide variety put to use in many different ways, testing needs will also vary across the board. Understanding which technologies are applicable to your industry and your stage in the polymer production lifecycle is vital to meeting your analytical needs. Many technologies can …

Polymer lifecycle companies rely on in-depth sample characterization in order to support accurate decision making on the production floor and in the research and development lab. Scientists must use a range of analytical technologies in order to provide the specific data needed at different points in the manufacturing process. With such diverse testing needs, analytical scientists must use …

Every birthday and each holiday season, caregivers are busy running around looking for the perfect present for their children or grandchildren. And of course, most shopping aisles and online shopping carts are filled with what most children have on their wish lists: toys. What’s not on any child’s wish list? Hexavalent chromium and other toxic …

Background Nanomaterials play an important role in our lives, only most of us do not even know it. Defined as any natural, incidental, or manufactured material that measures between 1 nm – 100 nm, nanomaterials can be found in just about everything — from our food, water, and air to electronics, medicines, and the very …