Category: Services

RoCo® houses state-of-the-art cryomilling equipment which allows milling of organics, in-organics and various metallic species and their mixtures. This equipment is typically used for size reduction, mixing, homogenization, grain refinement and cell disruption. We do small batches for our customers and help them evaluate the impact of size on their materials. The cryogenic temperature embrittles the materials resulting in improved breaking properties.

Our extrusion film caster allows couple with our twin screw extruder and allows us to cast sheets and films from 10 to 200 microns thick or perform extrusion coating onto paper or plastic webs. Samples can be up to 2.5” wide. This unit needs 4-10 lbs of materials.

RoCo® has multiple compounding and polymer processing equipment, including a 16mm twin screw extruder and a 40mL co-rotating compounder. The small 40mL compounder can compound small amounts of resin and be pressed into sheets or films for property evaluation.

The state-of-the-art twin screw extruder is coupled with a co-rotating screw that can create and mix various thermoplastic resins yielding a uniform blend for your needs. We can introduce liquid or powder to optimize your material properties. The result is a customized pellet material ready to be used for whatever application you need.

The extruder can be connected to a film unit.

Gas Chromatography (GC) is a versatile technique to evaluate the purity of various organic compounds and gas streams. It is a common chromatography technique for analyzing compounds that can be vaporized without decomposition. Typical uses of GC include testing the purity of a particular substance or separating the different components of a mixture

The Nicolet Is-5 FTIR is equipped with a Smart Diamond ATR accessory. Working in the mid-infrared range of 4,000 to 500 inverse cm it can run solid or liquid samples. It is easy to operate and designed for precise and fast-paced operations. The optical bench is sealed and desiccated with a protective coating on KBr windows. The system has rechargeable desiccant cartridges, a humidity indicator, and a DTGS detector. Requires 100 mg or less of samples. Ideal for liquids and solids samples.

Rheology reals with the deformation of materials and how those materials flow under strain. Many materials change their properties at different levels of strain and or strain rates. This makes rheology the study of stress-strain in materials.
A rheometer is used to study the rheological (flow) properties of a material. It is a precision instrument that can evaluate the properties of a material in a controlled environment. A Rheometer can also be defined as a mechanical spectrometer that subjects a sample to either a dynamic (sinusoidal) or steady (linear) shear strain (deformation) and measures the resultant torque in the sample.
It is a key instrument to provide insight into Viscosity and visco-elastic measurements of chemicals, oils, printing inks, lubricants, shear, and loss modulus measurements of plastics (after initial melting), personal care products (e.g., toothpaste, lotions), food & beverages (e.g., dairy products). Adhesives: Curing behavior etc. In addition, it can also provide key insights into mechano-thermal properties such as glass transition, Tg, melting temperature, and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of plastics.

RoCo® is equipped with a state-of-the-art Anton Paar 302 device capable of measuring a variety of liquid/melt properties.

The density meter measures liquid samples with an accuracy of up to 6 decimal places. The unit can also measure the Refractive index as well as the conductivity and pH of the samples. Measuring the density of a sample is an important quality parameter of raw materials and finished products. RoCo® can test for density for your needs for liquid samples. Density is important, and the ability to control density is the ability to control quality.

A variation in raw material, indicated by a change in the density, may have a detrimental outcome on the functioning or quality of the final product. Density measurement of raw materials can be used to confirm the purity of the material. If a substance has been adulterated with a cheaper alternative, the measured density of the composite material will be different from the pure substance. We have state-of-the-art instruments to provide the data you need to get the best data for your density. RoCo® has invested in Oscillating U-tube, a hollow glass tube vibrating at a certain frequency. This frequency changes when the tube is filled with the sample: the higher the mass of the sample, the lower the frequency measurement is and converted into density. A built-in Peltier thermostat precisely controls the benchtop’s instrument’s temperature (no water bath required). This approach provides accuracy up to 6 digital points. The key features are outlined below.

• Easy to use
• Small sample volume
• Automatic measurement means results are operator independent
• Built-in temperature compensation
• This unit can also measure the Refractive index as well as the conductivity and pH of the samples.

MicroVISC-m only requires a small liquid sample size to measure viscosity. This unit has microfluidic sensors that measure viscosity by the drop in pressure while the sample flows through a small rectangular flow channel. MicroVISC-m viscometer is widely recognized in the industry as the fast MicroVISC-m™ solution:

1. Requires as little as 100μL of sample
2. Offers a remarkably wide dynamic viscosity range
3. Achieves exceptionally high and low shear rates
4. Automated testing for rapid results
5. Prevents film forming, evaporation, and
   contamination
   Measures both Newtonian and non-Newtonian
   fluids easily
6. It has a very small footprint
7. Delivers extraordinary precision and accuracy, the easiest and most cost-effective way to determine the viscosity of a liquid.

The TA Instruments Q100 DSC is a high-throughput, versatile instrument and is capable of temperature ranges from -50°C to 550°C and running up to 50 automated samples using up to 5 reference pans. Differential scanning calorimetry is useful for determining specific materials’ glass transition temperatures, melting points, crystallization points, and heat of formation. It is often used in materials characterization, such as polymers or composites, to determine what types of temperatures and stresses a material can handle.

• Specific Heat (aka Heat Capacity or Cp) as a function of temperature
• Transition Enthalpy (aka Latent Heat) for melting and other phase changes
• Temperatures of Melting & Phase Transformations
• Temperature and energy change of Glass Transition & Crystallization

The TA Instruments Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) measures the change in mass of a sample as heat is applied in a controlled environment. This measurement provides information about physical phenomena, such as phase transitions, absorption, adsorption, and desorption; as well as chemical phenomena, including chemisorptions, thermal decomposition, and solid-gas reactions (e.g., oxidation or reduction)

The Q 500 Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) with autosampler and heat exchanger has an isolated thermo-balance and an innovative IR-heated furnace to measure weight changes as small as 1 microgram across temperature ranges from 30 to 1000 °C. Samples may be analyzed in either an inert (N2 or Ar) or reactive (air) atmosphere, and the system’s software allows users to switch between atmospheres during a run. More exotic gases can be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Samples are run using a hanging pan. Depending on the testing need, we work with our customers to create a custom method for our customers.