Polymer Birefringence

Polymer birefringence is a result of the handling of polymer materials during their manufacturing processes. Polymer plastics are inherently isotropic and as such would not show birefringence. However, when they are subjected to handling stresses from extrusion and injection molding, stress shows up as birefringence in the finished materials. Hinds Instruments is expert at measuring this polymer birefringence and can supply components or advanced Exicor instrumentation for high precision measurement of these stresses.

Biopolymers are polymers and plastics sourced from agricultural or biological rather than petrochemical sources. Historically, most plastics came from petrochemical sources but with current green movements, more and more biopolymer plastics are becoming available. These polymers are subject to the same handling stresses as petrochemical plastics and as such will exhibit polymer birefringence.

Typical systems available for this application include:

Exicor MT for inline polymer processing and quality control

Exicor 150AT for the quality control or research laboratory setting