Hauff-Technik GmbH & Co. KG in Hermaringen, Germany, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of sealing systems for cables, pipes, and building entries. Complying with their high quality standards, they verify the identity of the incoming polymer pellets from various suppliers. Hauff-Technik relies on the handheld Raman spectrometer MIRA XTR from Metrohm for fast and reliable ID verification.
Raman spectroscopy: fast, easy, and convenient
For a long time, Hauff-Technik did not verify the ID of the polymer pellets they were delivered from their suppliers. However, simply trusting in the certificates of the suppliers is not in line with the company's philosophy. They wanted to know exactly which materials they were processing. Instead of investing in a costly chemical quality control lab, Hauff-Technik opted for Raman spectroscopy.
Dr. André Koch, Head of Quality Management at Hauff-Technik, summarizes the advantages of Raman spectroscopy for ID verification of polymer pellets as follows:
- Easy sample preparation and fast, reliable, and reproducible results: measure the sample as is and get the results in under 2 minutes
- Easy operation: no chemical background is needed and routine operators receive a clear pass/fail result
Learn more about Raman spectroscopy in our blog:
Overcoming the challenges of colored polymer pellets
Many polymer pellets that Hauff-Technik processes are colored. For example, they use black polymer pellets, which usually pose a challenge to Raman spectroscopy: Colored samples are known to cause fluorescence, which leads to a poor Raman signal.
MIRA XTR can deal with these challenges and can verify the identity of colored pellets and fluorescent samples accurately and reliably. MIRA XTR comes with the MIRA CAL software, which features the XTRTM algorithm. What is just a blurry slope before XTR is applied becomes a clear and unique fingerprint in the software. This fingerprint can then be matched against the spectrum of the particular polymer in the library of MIRA XTR for instant, unambiguous identification.
Learn more in the interview with Dr. André Koch, Head of QC Management at Hauff-Technik:
Interview: Polymer ID verification in under two minutes (8.000.5443, PDF, 329 KB)
Additional information
Application notes on polymer and plastics analysis
Raman spectroscopy and fluorescent-free material ID
The free white paper "Fluorescence-free 785 nm material ID with MIRA XTR DS" presents a survey of fluorescence suppression methods, the benefits of MIRA XTR, and application examples (e.g., hazardous chemicals, illicit drugs, ingredients and products used in the food and beverage industry, and manufactured materials).