Identification of foreign material - Accredited Analysis

Contaminating particles in a production line can appear without notice, resulting in a costly stop in activities. Our specialists and analytical laboratories are standing by to quickly help you identify the material, so the source can be determined and production continued!

At the Danish Technological Institute, we offer chemical and structural identification of foreign matter and contaminations (particle identification).

ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN MATTER

Do you need to analyze and identfy an unknown material? Or do you have a suspicion that a material you have received isn't according to specification? The need to identify and characterize materials can often arise when discovering contaminants in a production line, or when a batch of material from a supplier doesn't live up to your expectations.

Whether you have a ton of steel plates or micrometer sized particles, our specialists and analytical laboratories are available to characterize and identify your material.

HOW CAN WE ASSIST YOU?

We document material properties structural morphology and chemical properties of your samples. We can identify materials and contaminants, eg. polymers, rubbers, oils, metals and metal alloys- of course without adding additional pollution. At the Danish Technological Institute, we have more than 20 years of experience with this type of research. We examine more than 1000 samples of foreign material each year and have one of Denmark's most well-equipped characterization laboratories.

We offer short delivery times for identification of foreign objects such as particles found in particulates and liquids. We can isolate and identify particles, sometimes less than 100 µm in size, and determine elemental compostion in areas as small as 1 x 1 µm.

COMPARISON OF MATERIALS

Structural and chemical comparison between material samples can be used for various tasks. A typical example from our lab can be to compare two different materials to assess whether they could stem from the same source - for example scrapings of paint on a car or a tool. Many customers also want to compare samples, where one of them for an unknown reason doesn't function or behave as expected. In an R&D environment, our investigations can give you important insight about your products chemistry and external and internal structure. 

DANAK ACCREDITATION

The Danish Technological Institute is accredited by the national accreditation body in Denmark (DANAK) to investigate and identify unknown material by SEM-EDX and FT-IR. Our analysis services have a quality that is typically approved by the FDA in auditing of production companies.

Our equipment

• Three scanning electron microscopes (SEM-EDX, FIB-SEM) from Zeiss. All SEM microscopes are equipped with facilities for X-ray analysis (X-ray spectroscopy) from Oxford Instruments.
• Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR)
• X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
• X-ray microtomography for 3D materials analysis (µCT / microCT)
• X-ray powder diffraction for analysis of crystalline materials (PXRD)
• Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS)
• Gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
• Refractive index measurement (GRIM3)

How can we assist you?

• Identification of foreign particles and materials
• Extraction of foreign material from vials, powder samples, cleaning cloths and tapes
• Extraction of foreign material from liquids
• Visualization of nano- and microstructures on and beneath surfaces

Contact: Kenneth Haugshøj, keh@dti.dk, +45 7220 3304