Plastics - Determination of ash - Part 1: General methods (A)
Material
Industry
Our test laboratory performs accredited testing according to DIN EN ISO 3451-1 Method A for the determination of ash content in plastics. The standard describes a method for determining the inorganic residue after direct calcination of the specimen. The investigation is used to determine mineral constituents such as fillers, pigments, glass fibres, or other inorganic additives in polymeric materials.
The test is applied, among others, to plastics, compounds, coatings, films, artificial leather, composite materials, and technical polymer materials. The results are used for material characterisation, formulation control, quality monitoring, and comparison of different batches or material systems. Especially for filled or reinforced plastics, the ash content provides important information on the proportion of inorganic constituents.
Test Procedure
For the test, the specimen is directly calcined in a muffle furnace under defined conditions. During this process, the organic constituents are thermally decomposed and removed. The remaining inorganic residue is then determined gravimetrically and evaluated as ash content. The standard specifies suitable temperature ranges as well as requirements for specimen preparation and calcination conditions.
In addition, the resulting ash can be qualitatively analysed for contained elements by EDX, and, where sufficient ash residue is available, quantitative elemental analysis can also be performed.
For polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the standard DIN EN ISO 3451-5 specifically adapted for PVC is generally applied, which is also offered by our test laboratory as an accredited test method.