Plastic film tension test

Requirement

The customer uses a double layer plastic film for packaging film for packaging of pet food and confectionary. They were looking for a cost-effective and simple system to repeatably measure the force required to break apart the 2 layers of 50 mm wide film, until it was fully torn. A key part of the task was to select grips which would hold the plastic film without slipping.

Solution

Mecmesin offered a compact, bench-mounted, motorised test stand system, which occupied very little space in the QC laboratory. It provided the necessary repeatability of results by virtue of operating at a fixed speed of 200 mm/min and using the peak-capture facility of the Advanced Force Gauge to record the maximum tension force applied. The Sprung-loaded Roller Grips were ideal for holding the film with sufficient gripping force to prevent slippage but not cause the film to be damaged. This ensured that the film always broke between the grips and not inside the grips.

Test equipment

• MultiTest-dV (or OmniTest) tensile tester. UltraTest Motorised Test Stand was the original equipment
• Advanced Force Gauge 500 N (or Touchscreen gauge, VFG)
• Pair of Sprung-Loaded Roller Grips for thin film samples

Adding software enables further data analysis and the digital gauge can output the information for graphical display.