FTIR material identification works by comparing the infrared absorption pattern of an unknown against reference spectra, and the identification is only as good as the sampling step that produced the spectrum. A mid-infrared spectrum runs from 4000 à 400 cm-1: above about 1500 cm-1 individual functional groups absorb, below it the pattern belongs to the whole molecule. This guide sets out the six-stage workflow, compares ATR, transmission and reflectance sampling, lists the artefacts that masquerade as bands, gives the common band positions as ranges, and explains why a high match score can still be the wrong answer.

A non-combustibility test puts a small specimen into a furnace held at 750 C and measures three things: how much the temperature rises, how much mass is lost, and how long the specimen sustains a flame. It does not measure whether a product survives a fire. The European version is EN ISO 1182 and the North American version is ASTM E136, and both apply broadly similar criteria. What turns those three numbers into a classification is EN 13501-1: Euroclass A1 requires a temperature rise of at most 30 C, a mass loss of at most 50 per cent, no sustained flaming at all, and a calorific value of at most 2.0 MJ/kg. Euroclass A2 relaxes those limits and adds two further tests.

In a quality control laboratory a UV-Vis spectrophotometer is not judged by its specification sheet but by whether its results survive an audit. This guide sets out the four workflows that dominate QC work, the measurement parameters that decide whether a result is defensible, how wavelength and photometric accuracy are verified against a traceable reference material, what analytical validation and system suitability require of a UV-Vis method, and the operational qualification checks to run before a instrument is released for routine use.

A fire resistance test furnace is not an oven with a thermometer bolted on. It is a calibrated exposure machine: a refractory chamber, a burner train, thermomètres à plaques, pressure probes and a loading frame that together reproduce one agreed time-temperature curve on a full-size building element. This guide walks through each subsystem, the numbers it has to hold, the E / je / R criteria the run produces, what changed when ISO 834-1 was republished in 2025, and the questions to put to a supplier before you buy.

Plastic flammability testing is not one test but four families, and choosing the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in the field. This guide separates ignitability, sustained combustion, flame spread and heat release, maps each of the four test families to the product types and compliance documents that require them, covers the specimen thickness and conditioning traps that cause most inter-laboratory disagreement, and sets out what a small-flame rating does and does not certify.