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Members Only

John Gearing

Specialities

Materials and Design Analysis	Processing	Secondary Operations Testing
Commercial	Markets	Other Skills

The 3 main specialisation areas are:

• For checking the THERMAL INSULATION properties of your plastic materials and composites, John Gearing offers a rapid and accurate service to BS874/ISO8301 for measuring the K - or lambda - values. Thickness from 100mm to 10mm - which could be several thinner sheets stacked up and results usually within several days. Using exclusively LaserComp Inc apparatus and results traceable to NIST (usa) standards.

• DMA (Dynamic Mechanical Analysis) will give you the glass transition (softening point) and the relative stiffness (modulus) and damping from very low temperatures to 400ºC. These can vary with the vibration frequency and also the strain amplitude, and DMA shows this! As well as the normal bar-shaped sample, we can handle thin films, fibres and now POWDERS.

It is also over 1000 times as sensitive as DSC for a few milligrams of powders. Examples can be seen of lactose - 4 samples of which were prepared differently and the DSC showed no differences, yet DMA shows very clear ones.

• Polymer calibration standards for GPC or Maldi-TOFS etc. where you wish to have a highly characterised few grams of research material of known molecular weight and polydispersity.

The polydispersity is usually very narrow, although some materials which are prepared by fractionation are rather broader!

John Gearing MA (engineering science), author of chapter on DMA in Marcel Dekkers latest book on "Handbook of Polymer Testing" - Ed Roger Brown, 1999. Over 10 experience of thermal conductivity testing throughout the UK on gooey liquids and mastics through to rigid plastics or composite samples as well as the common vacuum panels and foamed plastics. Over 30 years experience in GPC with a particular interest in producing very narrow (low polydispersity) polymer standards through living ionic polymerisation or in the case of nylon or PVC through prep GPC fractionation.

Surface testing in particular micro- or nano-scratch and the tribological properties of different plastics at low frictional forces using the latest CSM Instruments apparatus (www.csm-instruments.com).

Nano-indentation and micro-indentation of composites etc for local hardness and modulus information.

Contact Address

Gearing Scientific Ltd., 4 Springhead, Ashwell, Herts. SG7 5LL.

Direct line: 01462 742 007

Tel: 01462 742 007

e-mail: gearingsci@yahoo.com

Web: www.gearingscientific.net