A Case Study:
Counterfeit Plastic Resin?

The Case

Company ABC approached Polymer Solutions Incorporated for us to determine if any differences existed between two different polyacetal samples, labeled as Sample A and Sample B. Sample A was a product from a major supplier of polyacetal. Sample B was purported to be an innovative, direct replacement for the Sample A plastic product. The supplier of Sample B claimed to have developed a novel synthesis process and, as a result, was attracting substantial capital from investors.

Due to several sources of credible information it became highly doubtful that a novel plastic was being produced. Instead, it was suspected that the Sample A product was being purchased and repackaged as being representative of pilot scale quantities of Sample B. If Sample A and Sample B were produced in different facilities using different reaction parameters then some differences between the two samples would result.

Polymer Solutions Incorporated was asked to compare the chemical compositions and key chemical and physical properties of the two polyacetal resins to determine if Sample B was “counterfeit”. It was concluded that there were no differences between Sample A and Sample B so Sample B was essentially a counterfeit plastic resin.

Full Study> CounterfeitPlastic.pdf (244 KB)

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The Approach

In order to arrive at this conclusion, Polymer Solutions Incorporated used several analytical techniques to compare and contrast the two samples:

• Melt Rheology
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR)
• Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR)
• Extraction and Additive Analysis
• Capillary Gas Chromatography (GC)