TA Instruments adds to Discovery lines

PITTSBURGH—The TA Instruments subsidiary of Waters L.L.C. has made additions to two lines within its Discovery family of systems, both of which have rubber industry applications and complement each other.

Most recently, TA Instruments has introduced a line of thermogravimetric analyzers that feature a new system design resulting in what the company said is improved performance in sensitivity, temperature control and atmosphere control.

The Discovery TGA 5500, TGA 550 and TGA 55 include TA Instrument's Tru-Mass balance system, which the firm said delivers high sensitivity and accurate real time weight data.

The Discovery TGA measures sample weight changes under controlled conditions of temperature, time and atmosphere, TA Instruments said, and it is used to characterize the thermal stability and composition of a wide range of materials including polymers, elastomers, composites, pharmaceuticals, electronics and inorganics.

This follows the debut earlier in the year of the Discovery DSC2500, DSC250 and DSC25, its new line of differential scanning calorimeters. The company said the instruments feature enhanced sensing technologies that bring improved performance in baseline flatness, sensitivity, resolution and reproducibility.

Each new Discovery DSC includes the TA Fusion Cell technology, which brings together the best features of TA's Q-Series and the first-generation Discovery DSC, patented Tzero technology and new proprietary manufacturing processes, according to the firm.

Both the DSC and TGA models include a new app-style user interface standard with each model, according to the company, and combined with a new TRIOS software, automated calibration and verification routines are improved to help laboratory workflow and productivity.

Russell Ulbrich said these introductions are the second generation of the Discovery products and are “the easiest to use and the best measurement that we've made on these instruments. These two instruments are in our core customer base and what we have been traditionally known for in the rubber industry,” he said during the recent ACS Rubber Division Rubber Expo in Pittsburgh.

The TGA and DSC go together hand in hand, Ulbrich said. With the TGA, customers will look at weight loss as a function of temperature. “As we heat the sample and things volatize, the material will lose mass,” he said. “So it will tell us what is the maximum temperature where you start having degradation of the material.”

With the DSC, Ulbrich said users don't want to degrade the material. They're looking for endothermic and exothermic transitions in the material. Another rubber industry application is to study the kinetics of the curing process.

For TGA, a typical application, he said, would be to determine the filler content of an elastomer.

Both the DSC and TGA have three tiers of equipment available, depending on budget restrictions, according to Louis Waguespack, product manager for thermal analysis at TA Instruments.

“Some units come with everything: auto samplers, the best data and best performance, best baselines, highest sensitivity and highest resolution,” he said. “Others are more economical and flexible. You can add an auto sampler later if you need it.”

TA designed the instruments to get the best performance and data without having to make post-test manipulations, as he claimed some other instruments on the market need. “We've also increased the usability of it with touch screens and software that's designed to make it easier for the user,” Waguespack said at the Rubber Expo.

Most labs where there is a DSC either have—or should have—a TGA, he said. “A lot of times if you start running samples on the DSC, if the sample starts to break apart and decompose, you'll see that in the DSC. But you can then see it in the TGA, and it helps to interpret the data,” he said. “They're different measurements, but they're complementary.”

Waguespack said TA Instruments has had good feedback from customers that already have bought the units. “We just had a quality meeting and the numbers are unbelievably good for shipping units and not having any problems,” he said.

Ulbrich said TA Instruments grew up as a thermal analysis company, and these products differentiate it from competitors.

“We are the largest supplier of this equipment, and our value proposition is really based on the quality of our instruments, the quality of the measurement, the reliability of the equipment and the technical expertise behind it,” he said. “We have a No. 1 position in the market in the materials characterization market, which serves calorimetry, rheology and rheometry, physical characterization and mechanical testing.”

The DSC and TGA lines represent a new level of performance for TA that will help it meet the new challenges of customers, according to Ulbrich. “There is a trend in the industry that folks in analytical laboratories are challenged to do more with less,” he said. “It falls on vendors like ourselves to work closely with our customers and understand how to make the information easier to obtain, more accessible and more manageable.”