| BRICI, the Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry, part of the integrated energy and chemical company SINOPEC, focuses on the research of catalysts and polymer materials in the petrochemical industry. The globalization of the world economy and accelerated development in science and technology brings them huge challenges and unprecedented opportunities. With core skills and technologies in the ethylene and polypropylene areas their researchers in science and technology are fully oriented towards economic development.
The National Test Center of Polymer and Building Materials, supported by BRICI, Sinopec and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, has become a well-known authoritative test organization in China. It covers all mechanical, thermal and electric tests required in raw-materials characterization, as well as testing finished products such as pipes and fittings, window frames, doors and profiles, sheet and film materials, coatings and adhesives.
“We want to perform the tests according to the highest international levels in order to ensure comparability both within and beyond China’s frontiers”, said Mrs. Dongmei Zhe, the Deputy Director of the National Test Center. “We looked for test equipment that fully met these requirements, which was easy to operate, safe, reliable and gave test results that were traceable to national references.” added Mr. Ruoqi Wei , Director of the National Test Center.
In 2006 the decision was made to purchase from Zwick. Today, two universal testing machines perform static tensile and flexural tests according to GB, ISO, JIS and ASTM standards. One of the machines is equipped with a high resolution MultiXtens extensometer, which meets the highest accuracy standards possible to ensure qualified measurements of the tensile modulus according to ISO 527-2.
For the measurement of melt flow index values MFR and MVR, the National Test Center uses Zwick’s high-end 4106 plastometer. This device is equipped to perform multi-stage tests as usual for PE materials. Weights can be changed from low to high or from high to low at any stage of the test. The motorized piston control stops the piston at pre-determined positions, such as the preheat point. “These functions allow us a very flexible programming of our test procedures and as we normally don’t need to use a die plug this makes the test procedure much easier to carry out” said Mrs. Yuchun Liu , responsible for the lab.
The most impressive machines in this lab are the pendulum impact testers. “These instruments are certified for authoritative tests by the german MPA” said Mrs. Zhe. “This means that we can totally rely on our Charpy and Izod test results”. Thought to be of unique benefit to users, the automatic pendulum recognition system ensures data traceability, whilst the design of pendulum hammers with carbon fibre twin-rods reduces internal oscillation. In addition, the dove-tail grooves allow enable quick changes of fixtures between different test methods.
The cooperation between Zwick and the National Test Center is not only limited to the supply of test equipment. “We combine our skills to the advantage of both our customers and offer training sessions with national and international speakers” added Mr. Jason Kwok, Sales Director of Zwick’s Beijing branch office.
|
