Plastic packaging films have a natural tendency to slip away from smooth surface or to one another. The slipping tendency can be fixed by controlling the quality of film. Testing the friction delivered by the film can be performed using an accurate Co-efficient of friction tester. The plastic films are used in packaging industry like anything and delivers both aesthetics and strength to the inside content. In today’s date, the packaging industry rely on plastic film so much that they are conveying the PET bottle packaging to pouches for better use and portability. Thus, the films used must deliver the expected amount of performance with high grade quality.
Controlled level of friction is one of the most commonly demanded factor in packaging films. Lack of friction can produces slipping of the packets from one another during storage or transit conditions disturbing the content inside and may also lead to packaging failures. The failures can include bursting of the film and leakage of the product if in liquid form or breaking of the content packed inside. The friction is segregated into two form – static friction and kinetic friction. The static friction of the plastic film resist it to move while in standing position and kinetic friction resist from slipping away while it is in motion.
The equipment can evaluate the friction value of a particular plastic film and see that how much frictional forces are delivered when the plastic films are dragged on metal, glass or wood or against each other. The test value is recorded digitally on the display screen which is based on the microprocessor program. It can record the tare and peak value of the test process. It is very easy to clamp the specimen film on the machine using the knobs. Use of SS block Slider along with a load cell equipped in the machine is used to drag the specimen against distinct platforms.
The specimen is wrapped on the block and dragged against selected platform which can be as per the industry or test requirement. Complies with ASTM D618, ASTM D 883, BS 2782, and ASTM D 1894 for delivering precision based test results.
