Research establishes ability to differentiate virgin from recycled PP

Recent work in the development laboratories of Lacerta Technology – a specialist in the manufacture of plastic testing in the production area – has demonstrated the ability to differentiate ‘raw’ PP and material that has been blended with recycled plastic.

Working on materials supplied by Innovia Films Ltd, the identiPol OIT system has been found to correlate the Oxidative Onset Temperature (OOT) of the plastic with the level of anti-oxidant present in the PP material that contained a portion of re-worked, or recycled, PP gave measurably lower OOT values and this could be used to provide a quick PASS/FAIL result and prevent poor material going onto the production line.

An application brief providing an overview of this work can be downloaded from the identiPol website and a paper covering the full work (presented at the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Thermal Methods Group symposium at TAC 2014) is available upon request from Lacerta Technology.