Does your business make industrial materials or consumer products where the presence of an unidentified contaminant or foreign substance can be very costly? The contaminant may only be a visual imperfection or in more serious cases it can result in material failure, product recall and potential litigation.

FORAY Laboratories identifies contaminants for you, while CETEC, using the laboratory results, investigates the broader problem and provides you with solution options.

CETEC in conjunction with FORAY Laboratories has a wide range of techniques to assist you in the identification of contaminants. One very successful technique is Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) which creates magnified images by using electrons instead of light waves. SEM provides much higher magnification than a conventional light microscope to reveal far greater detail.

Also SEM allows the use of back-scattering techniques to highlight the in-homogeneity in the sample (refer to the two images below). Elemental analysis of a selected area of a sample is possible by Energy Dispersive X-Ray MicroAnalysis (EDXA). The EDXA technique is semi-quantitative for elements of atomic number above boron.

Some typical problems we investigate using SEM/EDXA include:

• Identifying foreign metal fragments in plastic component.
• Measuring and generating images of the topography of etched metal plates for a product development assessment. The magnification level of SEM means you can measure down to the micron level.
• Identifying dark marks found on the inside of a beverage container.

Do you have a contamination issue?  Do you need some answers ASAP?  Gives us a call to see how we can help you to fight off those foreign invaders fast.