Additional Testing Services

Materials Evaluation Consulting Services

Sometimes you just need materials identified or evaluated, and our experienced team is happy to help with expert consulting services. We can work with your business to deliver product assessments, laboratory audits, quality control, training and more. Learn about our additional testing services here.

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Consulting Services
Product Evaluation
Thermal Analysis
Particle Size Testing
Failure Analysis

Consulting Services

Our materials evaluation consulting services utilize the analytical testing capabilities of our materials testing lab with the technical skills of our metallurgists and chemists.

Materials Evaluation Consulting Services

Not all material quality problems are the result of material properties. Sometimes, external factors cause materials to fail. Our consulting services utilize the analytical testing capabilities of our testing labs along with the technical skills of our metallurgists and chemists to help customers identify and troubleshoot problem areas beyond materials testing.

Our technical expertise includes inorganic and polymer chemists, metallurgists, material engineers, and retained consultants available to assist you from design to production offering consulting services such as:

  • Problem Identification
  • Materials Selection
  • Process Assessments
  • Product Evaluations
  • Inspection and Certification
  • Research and Feasibility Testing
  • Method Development and Selection
  • Designed Experiment Evaluation
  • Failure Analysis
  • Laboratory Audits
  • Instrumentation Certification
  • Training
  • Expert Witness

As an Independent Testing Laboratory, NSL Analytical can also provide objective third-party analysis of your laboratory, provide recommendations, and certify your laboratory instrumentation and procedures.

Email our Technical Services team for more information.

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Product Evaluation

NSL provides product testing services to identify material issues impacting product performance.

Expert Product Evaluation

NSL scientists and metallurgists can provide product evaluation and testing services that help customers understand the materials issues that impact product performance including:

  • Quality Control for routine and special evaluations
  • Reverse Engineering of components
  • Inspection and certification of purchased materials
  • Customer returns and claims

Thermal Analysis

NSL provides Thermogravimetric Analysis services for testing polymer, plastic and composite materials. Our services test attributes like conductivity and composition.

Thermal Analysis Capabilities

NSL’s thermal analysis capabilities include the latest instrumentation and techniques for the testing of polymer, plastic, and composite materials. NSL offers a broad range of thermal analysis techniques to help you determine:

  • Composition
  • Glass transition temperature
  • Cure profile
  • Thermal and Oxidative Stability
  • Melting Point and Crystallization
  • Heat Deflection Temperature (HDT or DTUL) – (ASTM D648)

Particle Size Testing

Interested in learning more? Read about Advanced Powder Characterization for Additive Manufacturing.

Laser Diffraction for Particle Size Analysis

Laser diffraction is the most widely used technique for particle size analysis. The methods have developed considerably over the years as had the capability to analyze over broad size range in a variety of dispersion media. Manufacturers and end users of powdered materials depend upon these accurate, reproducible, high resolution light scattering measurements to ensure full characterization of the particle size distribution of their sample.

NSL offers this particle size characterization analysis with the recent launch of our laser diffraction methods using the Malvern Mastersizer 3000. Laser diffraction is a well-established industry standard technique, defined by ISO 13320.

ISO 13320 for laser diffraction was first published in 1999. It has nearly replaced the sizing of particles by sieve analysis and is relied upon by numerous industries that produce or use powders and particles, such as pigments and powder metals, to ensure the quality of their products.

Our solution offers the following benefits:

  • A detection range of 100 nanometers to 3.5 millimeters for dry media, and 10 nanometers to 2.1 millimeters for liquid dispersions
  • Accuracy within 1 percent
  • Repeatability better than 0.5 percent
  • Reproducibility better than 1 percent

A large variety of material types can be analyzed including:

  • Powdered metals and oxides
  • Pigments
  • Emulsions
  • Suspensions of polymers

Applications include measuring the particle size distribution of pigments and materials used in the following:

  • Optical coatings
  • Electronic devices
  • Solar cells
  • Wear resistant coatings
  • Medical devices

Failure Analysis

At NSL Analytical, we utilize state-of-the-art instrumentation and resources to ensure that every component in your product can withstand the most demanding applications to adequately perform its intended function. Clients choose NSL because our results provide the answers to their most difficult problems. We can complete the toughest failure analysis jobs when product quality and customer satisfaction is essential.

Our Accredited Failure Analysis Testing Lab

In our failure analysis lab, we can help determine which conditions or mechanical components are causing your product to not perform as expected. This information can help you identify weaknesses in your manufacturing, assembly, inspection, or delivery processes. We perform complete, redundant testing such as:

  • Elemental failure analysis
  • Metallography and mechanical failure testing
  • Physical property failure testing
  • And more

Each test is designed to provide you with complete answers to why your component is deficient, and how future failures can be prevented.

HOW IS MATERIAL FAILURE DEFINED?

A failure is ultimately defined by a product failing to perform sufficiently in a given situation. Failure can include a material breaking, bending, weakening, or wearing. Our job at NSL is to investigate the different components of a certain application to determine the cause of the application failing. You may have an idea of what the main cause of a failure is, but there is often more to the story than can be seen without professional failure analysis.

Consulting Services

Not all material failures are the result of material properties. Sometimes, external factors cause materials to fail.

NSL’s consulting services include the analytical testing capabilities of our testing labs along with the technical skills of our metallurgists and chemists to help you identify and troubleshoot problem areas beyond materials testing.

Our technical expertise includes inorganic and polymer chemists, metallurgists, material engineers, and retained consultants available to assist you from design to production. The experts at NSL Analytical understand how to best communicate with you to explain how certain external conditions lead to a component failure. Then, we work with you to determine how to best address the situation, so your material or product performs as expected.

What Does Failure Testing Include?

The first step is always a consultation to understand if the failure may be related to a process or the material.  Our scientists and metallurgists have extensive experience in the field and in the lab. A typical failure analysis can combine the testing resources of our laboratory facilities, including:

What Can Failure Analysis Determine?

Our failure analysis services help identify problems associated with product failures, including:

  • Finding major flaws or indications of misuse
  • Comparison of materials to specification
  • Fracture characteristics and origin
  • Heat treatment condition and general material quality
  • Structure uniformity
  • Material conformance to requirements