Mechanical Processing Laboratory
Lab Coordinators: Richard J. Farris, Alan J. Lesser

This Laboratory provides a collection of instruments that measure the mechanical properties of polymeric solids under shear or elongational deformations. Stresses and strains can be imposed in a variety of steady or dynamic modes with options for controlling the temperature and humidity parameters under which these experiments occur, by employing enclosed environmental chambers.

Seven Instron instruments form the core of equipment available to the polymer research community. Two of the Instrons are servo-hydraulically operated while the other five are screw driven. Each instrument can be fitted with an assortment of peripheral equipment such as load cells, specimen grips, sample chamber and test fixtures. An additional pair of Instron instruments function as capillary melt rheometers. Complementing this array are two deformation calorimeters, a high pressure gas dilatometer, and a Dynostat dynamic-mechanical testing apparatus, all of which can monitor the evolution of sample properties under static and dynamic tensile loads.

The Mechanical Properties Laboratory has pioneered the use of holographic interferometry to examine the mechanical properties and stresses of thin films and maintains equipment capable of providing parameters such as simple density, porosity, and particle size. A torsion pendulum device is available for determining the shear modulus of films and fibers.

Thermal Processing Laboratory
Lab Coordinator: Richard J. Farris

Equipment in the Thermal Analysis laboratory includes two TA differential scanning calorimeters (DSC), one of which is capable of modulated temperature sweeps; Model 4 and Model 7 Perkin-Elmer DSCs; and three TA instruments, models TGA 2950, TMA 2940, DMA 983 for selected thermal analyses.

Processing Laboratory
Lab Coordinators: Richard J. Farris, Alan J. Lesser

Equipment in the Thermal Analysis laboratory includes two TA differential scanning calorimeters (DSC), one of which is capable of modulated temperature sweeps; Model 4 and Model 7 Perkin-Elmer DSCs; and three TA instruments, models TGA 2950, TMA 2940, DMA 983 for selected thermal analyses.