| Abstract Scope |
Tougher, brighter, more flexible, more durable – it is the additives in plastics components that can alter properties, enhancing the performance of the end product. However, when a plastic component fails, it is these additives that usually play a vital role. The failure analysis of the plastic components needs to include the identification of plastic additives such as UV stabilizers, pigments, fillers, and antioxidants. The identification of such additives can be achieved using typical failure analysis instrumentation such as FTIR, mass spectrometry, thermal gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The presentation will focus on the identification of plastic additives during a failure analysis investigation. |