A. It is important to perform permeation tests with your containers since there are so many factors that affect the barrier properties for any given package. Some of the factors that affect barrier treatment include the manufacturer, weight, resin package, color concentrate carrier, pigment type, closures, label, wall thickness, level of regrind resins, and shape. A change in any one of these factors can affect the barrier level of the package. For this reason, Fluoro-Seal emphasizes the importance of testing containers that are identical to the ones that will be used for your production.

The Department of Transportation also has regulations regarding packaging and transportation of chemicals that permeate plastic. Please refer to Compatibility Testing as defined in the Code of Regulation of the Department of Transportation, Appendix B to Part 173- Procedure For Testing Chemical Compatibility and Rate of Permeation in Plastic Packaging and Receptacles.

A. The US Department of Transportation requirement for products transported over US highways is that chemicals and solvents lose less than 2% weight per year. This serves to protect warehouse and shipping personnel from excessive fume exposure and to protect the consumer from underweight packaging. Note that for hazardous materials the permissible weight loss is only 0.5% per year! Fluorination can often boost HDPE container performance enough to help you meet these targets. Over 20,000 of our customers worldwide have been able to maintain use of impact resistant HDPE packaging and avoid switching to less desirable glass or metal containers or to more expensive barrier resin or barrier coated containers.

Please refer to Compatibility Testing as defined in the Code of Regulation of the Department of Transportation, Appendix B to Part 173 Procedure For Testing Chemical Compatibility and Rate of Permeation in Plastic Packaging and Receptacles.

A. The US Department of Transportation requirement for products transported over US highways is that chemicals and solvents lose less than 2% weight per year per package. This serves to protect warehouse and shipping personnel from excessive fume exposure and to protect the consumer from underweight packaging. Note that for certain hazardous materials the permissible weight loss is only 0.5% per year per package! Fluorination can often boost HDPE container performance enough to help you meet these targets. Over 20,000 of our customers worldwide have been able to maintain use of impact resistant HDPE packaging and avoid switching to less desirable glass or metal containers or to more expensive barrier resin or barrier coated containers.

The following link will take you to the Federal Regulations on line site to view 49 CFR Part 173 Shippers- General Requirements for Shipments and Packaging.

A. Yes. The Fluoro-Seal Process complies with FDA regulations in accordance with 21CFR Ch. I, Pt. 177.1615 a, b, and c.

Note: The DOT lists a general procedure for testing chemical compatibility and rate of permeation. This may be helpful for your evaluations and may be found at: Appendix B.49 CFR Ch. I, Pt. 173, Appendix B.

Please have your FDA affairs group locate the most recent edition of the CFR and provide you with advice and guidelines in adhering to any and all regulations that may apply to your particular application.

A. Not all inks are compatible with fluorine chemistry. For this reason, Fluoro-Seal insists on treating samples before treating a full production load of decorated containers. To save time and avoid last minute delays, samples should be submitted for testing prior to production runs being made. Once the decorated containers are qualified, a DCQ (Decorated Container Qualification) form is retained on file and future orders will not be delayed for this process.

A. Decorated Container Qualification (DCQ )is Fluoro-Seal's program to insure bottles that have been decorated prior to being fluorinated will emerge from the treatment process with an appearance that meets the customers approval.

Decorated samples are sent to one of Fluoro-Seal's treatment facilities. The samples are treated at all 5 of our treatment levels. Treated samples are then returned to the customer with a form indicated any comments on visual changes after treatment. The customer then inspects the samples and signs off on the levels that appear acceptable. If the inks that were used are not compatible with the process, Fluoro-Seal has engineers that can assist the decorator to find inks that are chemically resistant and will allow treatment with an acceptable visual appearance.

Please note, if there are any changes made to the package or decoration, the process must be repeated to requalify the package.

A. Fluorinated containers are much more water wettable than non-fluorinated. This can be detected by observing water beads or spread of dyne test fluids. Generally it is best to perform any test on the inside surface of the container as wettability and dyne tests cannot readily discriminate between fluorination and flame treatment or corona/arc tunnel surface treatments. FSI uses a proprietary FTIR program to quantify the amount of surface modification that has taken place on the substrate.

A. Dyne level is a measurement of the surface energy of a substrate. Both (PP) and (PE) are low energy plastics. Untreated PP and PE have a low dyne reading (usually 30 to 32 dyne). Using Fluoro-Seal, Inc. surface modification treatment will raise the surface energy level and allow adhesives to achieve maximum surface adhesion.

A. The surface modified fluorination process substantially increases the dyne level of HDPE plastics. In most cases the dyne level observed after surface modified fluorination exceeds that achieved by flame or corona surface treatment. Actual dyne levels range from 55 to over 80 dynes/sq. cm.