Test the Oxygen Transmission of Your Films - Critical to Product Viability
08 June 2007
Oxygen is a critical factor for the shelf life or viability of a variety of food, pharmaceutical, electronics and other products. Many products degrade or spoil in the presence of oxygen, while others require oxygen for respiration. Consequently, the measurement of oxygen permeability of packaging materials for these products is a vital part of the design of packaging materials for these products.
In recent years, there has been tremendous growth in the variety of food products, pharmaceutical products, and electronics products available in stores. Many of these products owe their viability and longer shelf life to the advancements in packaging materials that have also been achieved. Some products are extremely sensitive to oxygen, and require packaging with excellent barrier properties against the oxygen in the atmosphere.
Others, such as fruits and vegetables, need oxygen for respiration to keep them fresh, and therefore require packaging allowing transmission of oxygen gas through the film. For all of these products, the ability to test the packaging materials for oxygen transmission rate is an important step in the design of suitable packaging. Therefore there is a need for oxygen permeability testing of the packaging films.
OXYGEN PERMEABILITY TESTER FOR FILMS AND FOILS
The OPT-5000 oxygen permeability tester offers a simple, reliable test of the Oxygen Transmission Rate (OTR) through films and foils. All operations are performed directly on the tester's easy-to-use touch screen display, and a user can learn to set up the test parameters and perform a measurement with just a minimum of training. Upon completion of the test, the oxygen transmission rate of the tested film is reported directly in ml/m²/24hr.
The OPT-5000 offers measurement of oxygen permeability within a wide range of testing conditions. Temperature is automatically controlled via heaters and blowers, and an external water thermostat is used for measurements at lower temperatures. The state-of-the-art humidification system on the OPT-5000 allows testing within a broad range of relative humidity of the test and carrier gas streams. The tester's durable, ceramic solid-state oxygen sensor offers high measurement sensitivity at low oxygen concentrations, and long sensor lifetime.
Preparation and changing of samples is simple and fast using the self-adhesive sample holder cards provided with the tester. No grease is required for tight sealing of the sample in the chamber.
The OPT-5000 offers a cascade programming function that allows the user to program a fully automated test sequence using up to eight different sets of conditions. With this feature, the user can perform, for example, a series of tests at variable humidity conditions. With just one start-up of the tester, the user can obtain multiple test results that can be used, for example, to generate a graph of the oxygen permeability of the sample as a function of the relative humidity.
In addition to the test results presented on its built-in printer, the OPT-5000 tester is supplied with the 'OxMon' automatic test report generation program and on-line data download for PC. This report generator is suitable for any computer having a minimum of Windows 98, a screen resolution of 1024x768 and an open communication port (RS-232 or USB). For use of the OxMon program, an RS-232 connection cable and USB/Serial converter are also supplied with the OPT-5000.
