A Case Study:
Counterfeit Plastic Resin?

The Case

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

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

Polymer Solutions Incorporated was asked to compare the chemical compositions andkey chemical and physical properties of the two polyacetal resins to determine if SampleB was "counterfeit". It was concluded that there were no differences between Sample Aand 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)