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How to measure and analyse the texture of food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and adhesives.

Tuesday 15 August 2017

How to test the Physical Properties of Thin Samples

Thin samples are notoriously difficult to test. This is a short guide with some tips to make your thin sample testing more accurate and repeatable.

Compression or penetration


When testing the hardness of thin products by compression or penetration, the measured force may show a sudden exponential increase as shown in the graph below. This occurs as a result of the probe moving nearer to the base. 


Either the test will abort because the load cell has overloaded, or the test will finish, collecting irrelevant data that does not reflect the true properties of the product. Comparison could then incorrectly be made between maximum forces that are not sample derived.