High Temperature Vapour Permeability measurement in Industrial processes

Permeability causes more problems in the real world than almost anything else – with costs running into the billions each year in the UK alone.   It causes food to rot, damp in buildings, industrial processes to fail, things to leak and electronics (and even missiles) to fail.

We have launched a fast and accurate way to measure this in precise, temperature controlled conditions.  The way water vapour leaches into buildings varies considerably with how cold or hot it is outside, and semi-permeable filters are crucial in a wide range of industrial processes at temperatures that can vary up to and beyond 1000 C.

Our latest equipment can optionally measure this this across a very wide temperature range for "leakage" of virtually any gas or vapour.  It can also measure almost any material – including cmplete components, complete units and finished structures.

Vapour permeability measurements are widely used in almost every industry as it is critical in most real-life applications.  It substantially alters properties such as the shelf-life of pharmaceuticals and packaged foods, the efficiency of pipelines, seals and valves and even the waterproof-ness of paints and coatings.

Our range of sensors, use a wide range of physical principals and enable the equipment to be used across an unprecedented variety of applications to characterise an ever expanding range of materials, compounds, containers, products and laminates. Temperatures can range from around up to around 1300 C.

The permeability meters are highly automated and can cope with several samples at a time.  It needs very little re-calibration and requires, at most, minimal training.  Sensitivities depend on sensors, gases and materials but are usually in the PPM (Parts Per Million) range, PPB for some materials. Results are both accurate and highly repeatable.

We also offers a consultancy service for laboratories that need to measure permeability of complex new materials and assemblages.

 

 

For information on permeability testing click here

For background information on permeability click here

 

Vapour permeability is the measure of how strongly a material can resist the barrier passage of any gas (such as water vapour, Oxygen, CO₂ or a hydrocarbon).  Vapour permeability dramatically affects the physical characteristics of most products and materials, from outdoor clothing to missiles and from pizza to industrial seals.

The control of the transfer of moisture (ie permeability) throughout composite food products is the biggest challenge to food preservation. A wide range of edible film-forming compounds is available and this allows manufacturers and food producers to tailor moisture barriers to optimized their properties for each specific product. The only way this can be achieved is through the accurate measurement of the film or coatings permeability.