Application Overview

Accurate measurement of the transport of moisture and other vapours through the packaging used in a range of industries, including food and pharmaceuticals, is crucial to the assessment of its performance under given conditions.

The transport is most commonly expressed in terms of permeability or permeation rate (also known as the transmission rate), which is the measured flux under defined operating conditions. For example, the transport of water vapour through membranes is characterised by the moisture vapour transmission rate (MVTR) at controlled humidity.

The IGAsorp gravimetric analyser is available with a unique MVTR permeation cell that is designed specifically for the measurement of moisture transport through membranes. The IGAsorp is ideally suited to the measurement of the moisture transport through films as a function of relative humidity (RH).

The IGA-002 is a dedicated gravimetric vapour sorption analyser that can be used to measure the uptake of a wide range of vapours from vacuum to pressures of up to 20 bar.

An example of published data measured using Hiden Isochema instrumentation can be found below.

Product Information Pages

IGA-002
IGAsorp

Application Notes

Article 112    Comparison of Water and Ethanol Vapour Sorption and Transport through a Polymer Membrane

Article 115    The Study of Moisture Sorption into Polymer Films using the Response Test Method

Article 117    Transmission, Sorption and Diffusivity: Methods for Determining the Transport of Water Vapour through Films

Article 124    Concentration Dependence of the Microscopic Mobility of Water in Polymer Membrane

Please use our enquiry form to request any of these application notes.

References

A New Approach to Predict the Water-transport Properties of Multilayer Films Intended for Food-Packaging Applications
M.A. Del Nobile, G.G. Buonocore, D. Danielli, and L. Nicolais
Journal of Food Science,  69 No.2 (2004)