Facilities & Equipment | Pre-Processing Equipment

1200°C G-range Tube Furnace (Carbolite )

This furnace is equipped with a Eurotherm temperature controller (Model 3216P1) which allows for various heating programs. Rapid heating can be provided up to 1200°C via resistance wire heating elements, semi-embedded in vacuum formed low thermal mass insulation modules used in combination with a ceramic worktube. The furnace can be modified to provide a non-oxidizing atmosphere or vacuum. This furnace is utilized for synthesis of carbon nanoparticles and testing of materials under high temperature conditions.

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Auto-Pneumatic Cutter Press with Qualitest Specimen Cutting Dies (Qualitest)

The GOTECH Auto-Pneumatic Cutter is used to cut standard specimens from rubbers, plastics, textiles, etc for mechanical testing. The cutter press is currently equipped with Qualitest Specimen Cutting Dies D-638-4-IMP-ASTM and D-638-1-IMP-ASTM for cutting tensile testing specimens.

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Automatic Titrator (Mettler Toledo)

This fully automated titration system provides higher productivity and increased sample throughput. Controlled by the titrator, the Liquid Handler automatically doses and pipettes samples with the highest possible degree of accuracy.

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Box Furnace Lindberg/Blue M (Thermo Scientific)

The Lindberg box furnace is composed of a ceramic fibre insulation and heating element composite. It is capable of reaching 1100°C. The box furnace is equipped with a programmable temperature controller which allows for user-defined proportional, integral, and derivative values.

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Envirotronics Endurance C340 (Envirotronics, Inc.)

This environmental chamber has a temperature range of -70^oC to 180^oC and can reach humidity levels of up to 98% RH at 95^oC. It has heating and cooling rates of 3.0^oC/minute and 2.7^oC, respectively. In this chamber, test samples can be subjected to environmental stress screening by exposure to extreme temperature and humidity conditions.

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High Intensity Ultrasonic Liquid Processor - Vibra Cell (Sonics & Materials Inc.)

The VCX500 is a 500 Watt ultrasonic processor capable of processing volumes between 250 microlitres to 1 litre. Typical applications of this equipment are dispersion of nanoparticles, acceleration of chemical reactions, and degassing.

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Incubators (Fisher Scientific)

These Fisher Scientific isotemp programmable incubators with gravity flow circulation provide accurate, efficient heating for routine laboratory procedures.

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NAPCO Vacuum Oven (Thermo Scientific)

This vacuum oven has a temperature range of 35° to 200°C and a vacuum range from atmospheric to 30”Hg. The vacuum oven can be used to have reactions occur under vacuum or in a chosen gas atmosphere, and to dry samples at lower temperatures than in convection ovens, by which degradation of the materials is eliminated. This vacuum oven is used for different applications such as moisture determination, out gassing solids and liquids, aging tests, drying of paper, rubber, and textiles, and desiccating.

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Planetary Ball Mill (Retsch)

Planetary ball mills are used for very fine grinding of material down to the nano scale. Planetary mills use centrifugal forces that results in very high pulverization energy and thus short grinding times. The PM100 is computer controlled and can store up to 10 SOPs and has programmable starting times. The PM100 is also capable of measuring the energy input during grinding.

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Precision Oven (Thermo Scientific)

This is a 5.0 cu. ft. gravity convection oven with a temperature range of 50° to 275°C under microprocessor control.

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Spectrum System Grinder and Polisher (LECO)

The SS-1000 is a grinder/polisher that comes equipped with a semi-automatic grinding/polishing head and two 8 inch wheels driven by a ¾ HP motor. The grinder/polisher comes with a variety of grinding/polishing discs, such as 60-1200 grit abrasive paper discs, and silk and nylon polishing cloth discs. The SS-1000 has a timer, variable speed control, and adjustable water faucets. The grinder/polisher can be used for polishing surfaces to be viewed under a microscope or polishing specimens to required ASTM dimensions for mechanical testing.

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Strand Pelletizer (Reduction Engineering Scheer)

This strand pelletizer can pelletize the entire range of thermoplastics, from soft rubber-like to brittle, fragile, high-density and glassfibre reinforced thermoplastics.

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Thelco Oven (Thermo Scientific)

This gravity convection oven uses microprocessor control for digital set points, digital display, and the digital safety thermostat. Gravity convection is ideal for situations where sample, such as powders, and finely chopped agricultural fibres, cannot be disturbed by forced air. The oven has a volume of 157.5 litres and a maximum operating temperature of 250°C.

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Universal Cutting Mill (Fritsch)

Biofibres, biomass, and other fillers are often in non-uniform shapes and have large particle sizes. Cutting and grinding helps in reducing the size of these biomaterials for easier processing of biocomposites. This pulverizer is capable of comminuting soft to medium-hard materials as well as fibrous materials and plastics.

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