FT-NIR analysis for verifying raw materials through plastic and paper packaging industry - Pulp & Paper
When raw materials are purchased it is critically important to verify that the correct materials have been received for quality, regulatory, and economic reasons. Often these raw materials, such as food or pharmaceutical ingredients, are transported in plastic bags or paper packaging. Packaging can be opened to perform a verification test using analytical techniques such as assays or infrared spectroscopy.
Overview Applications and Industries Served
However, opening material packaging has several disadvantages:
Decreased Cleanliness and Sterility - After opening raw material packaging, a sample needs to be extracted or a sampling probe must be inserted into the material. This introduces the possibility of tainting the sample with chemical or biological contaminants. Also, if the same probe is used on multiple products it increases the risk of cross-contaminating the raw materials.
Increased Spoilage - Some materials are vacuum packed or otherwise protected from humidity, oxygen, or ultraviolet light. Opening the packaging permits exposure to these elements that may reduce the shelf life, cause clumping or agglomeration, or degrade the material in a manner that makes downstream processes fail.
Risks to Personnel Safety - Occasionally incoming materials may present a hazard to receiving or laboratory personnel who are tasked with opening the packages and performing the analysis. Often, gloves, respirators and other personal protection measures are required which increases the costs and risks associated with the activity.
A few technologies exist today that allow sampling of raw materials through their packaging. For example, specialized Raman spectroscopy techniques can sometimes sample through semi-transparent packaging. However, Raman spectroscopy suffers from fluorescence interference, tends to have a small sampling area, can burn the sample or packaging, and is sometimes difficult to use as a quantitative technique, making it problematic for many applications.
Near-infrared spectroscopy holds promise for sampling through packaging and containers because it can penetrate several millimeters into a material, thus seeing the characteristics of both the packaging material and the sample inside the package.
