HDPE Geomembrane Carbon Black Content Tester - QualiGTX™ CBC
Carbon Black Content Tester for Geosynthetics by Nitrogen Pyrolysis
The QualiGTX™ CBC HDPE Geomembrane Carbon Black Content Tester determines how much carbon black a polyethylene, polypropylene, or polybutylene product contains, using high-temperature decomposition under a nitrogen atmosphere followed by gravimetric analysis of the residue. Carbon black is what protects a geomembrane from ultraviolet degradation over a service life measured in decades, and the quantity present has to fall inside a narrow band to work properly. The CBC gives manufacturers and quality assurance laboratories a direct measurement of that quantity rather than a reliance on supplier declarations.
A programmable tube furnace runs from ambient temperature to 990 °C under segmented control, so an operator sets a ramp, a decomposition hold, and any subsequent soak as one profile and lets the instrument execute it. Automatic temperature control removes the need to watch the furnace through a run that takes the better part of an hour. Results read out on an LCD display, and the Ø31 mm heating tube with roughly 400 mm of heated length accommodates a standard combustion boat.
The CBC weighs 38 kg and occupies a 550 × 450 × 1130 mm footprint, which puts it within reach of laboratories that would not commit to a full analytical suite. Geomembrane and geopipe manufacturers, construction quality assurance laboratories, and certification bodies use it for production control and conformance testing. The same instrument covers polypropylene and polybutylene products, so a laboratory testing several polyolefin lines maintains one furnace rather than several.
