Testing vapour permeability for pumps, meters and flow valves

Paul Boughton

Every home, office and factory already has numerous pumps, meters and flow valves as they are used in applications ranging from dishwashers to artificial hearts, many of them use materials that are excellent at keeping liquids out, but then perform poorly simply because they provide a poor barrier to vapours and gasses.

EVOH, PVOH, cellulose and many other materials fall into this category. Worse still, manufacturing processes such as thermoforming can degrade performance to a quarter of its original value.

Thanks to Versaperm, testing vapour permeability is now easy, not just for material samples, but for complete components and even finished products. Problems with vapour permeability have led to expensive product recalls and replacements.  

What’s more Versaperm’s equipment can optionally measure permeability not only with respect to water vapour, but also for hydrocarbons, oxygen, nitrogen, CO2 and most other gases or vapours.

The new equipment is fast and easy to use, and accuracies are commonly in the parts per million range, (parts per billion with some gasses).  The system is suitable for use on most pumps, metres and flow valves as well as plastics or rubber materials, containers, films, coatings and components. Depending on the details of the test results can be produced in as little as 30 minutes for some materials, as opposed to weeks or months with more conventional testing equipment.

As well as manufacturing instruments, Versaperm offers a permeability laboratory service for companies that need to test samples on an irregular basis.

For more information, visit www.versaperm.com