A material's composition affects everything about it—how long it lasts, how strong or flexible it is, how it’s packaged, etc. Investigative Chemistry is based on the idea that materials questions can be answered by examining the processes, components and chemical reactions involved.
Experienced in chemistry for your materials and applications
Element’s investigative chemists possess a unique range of experience in consulting, analytical testing, and industrial chemistry. Whether routine QA/QC assistance, material verification, or elemental analysis—or nonroutine projects such as product deformulation, identification of unknown materials, or the analysis of a failed part or product—we are prepared to work with you to explore solutions. Element serves the testing needs of all types of industries and government agencies.
Typical questions we answer:
- What is this material made of?
- What caused this part to corrode?
- Why didn’t this adhesive hold?
- What discolored this test item?
- Is my product contaminated?
- Why did the coating fail?
Element Materials Technology performs testing and evaluation using the following techniques and onsite specialized equipment:
- Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)
- Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry (EDS)
- Gas Chromatography/Mass Selective Detection (GC/MSD)
- Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
- Optical Emission Spectrometry (OES)
- Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)