Akron Rubber Development Laboratory, Inc. (ARDL) continues to invest in new equipment to meet the needs of the rubber, plastic, latex, adhesives and coatings industries.
ARDL’s Mixing and Molding laboratory added two MonTech MDR Rheometers, as well as an additional MonTech Mooney Viscometer, all of which are networked, providing quick and easy digital downloads of graphs for comparison. ARDL’s Physical Testing laboratory expanded capacity with the purchase of a new Ozone Chamber.
In the Engineering laboratory, ARDL recently acquired a new Metravib Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer DMA+1000. ARDL now operates three Metravib DMA instruments, in addition to several MTS servohydraulic load frames. This equipment allows ARDL to perform a wide variety of dynamic testing, including tire performance predictors/indicators.
ARDL’s Chemical Services laboratory purchased a new CDS 6200 Pyroprobe accessory system, paired with an existing GC/MS station. The new CDS 6200 Pyroprobe adds an analytical trap, capable of collecting analytes using slow rate pyrolysis. The built-in trap also provides the capability of using a reactant gas to perform thermal desorption on sorbent tubes or larger samples. The CDS 6200 Pyroprobe utilizes a Drop In Sample Chamber (DISC) sample loading system, which makes the loading of the pyrolysis tubes more efficient and the testing more repeatable. This new system also performs Multi-Step Pyrolysis, which allows key components of materials to be easily separated into multiple chromatograms for further analysis.
