During the course of manufacturing, packaging, storage, or transportation, materials are often exposed to a variety of environmental factors, including differences in temperature and humidity. These changes can affect materials in ways which may impact the quality, reliability, or shelf life of a product or ingredient. To mimic these factors, PTL has installed a Memmert HCP108 humidity chamber.
By pre-conditioning sample material in this humidity chamber prior to analysis, PTL can replicate specific environmental conditions to troubleshoot material issues or conduct comparison studies. Sample material is placed into the chamber and held at a controlled level based on client-provided time, temperature, and humidity specifications. The temperature range can be set from 35°C to 90°C and the humidity range from 20%RH to 95%RH. The unit is computer controlled allowing for ramping and cycling of the temperature and humidity at a specified rate.
Storage conditions can be of specific interest when bulk powder properties appear to change between manufacturing locations or production batches. Powder flowability, bulk/tap density and angle of repose are examples of bulk powder properties typically affected by temperature and humidity during storage. PTL can test for these properties in our laboratory. Storage conditions can also cause different polymorphic forms in pharmaceuticals which can be investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). All of these tests are available at PTL.
To find out more about pre-conditioning sample material before analysis, contact us at (630) 403-0125 or online by email us.
