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2006
Conference Paper
Titel
The micro-chamber thermal Extractor- The innovative solution for fast, cost effective, VOC materials emissions testing
Abstract
Emissions of (semi-)volatile organic compounds ((S)VOC's) from materials can adversely impact indoor and in-vehicle air quality. National and international regulations/protocols, such as the European Construction Products Directive, German protocol for fire-resistant floorings (AgBB)[1] and the Californian CHPS protocol for public school building programs (CHPS)[2] require the determination of materials emissions using conventional test equipment such as chambers/cells (Methods EN13419-1/-2/-3, ISO/EN 16000-6/-9/-10/-11, ASTM D5116-97, ASTM D7143-05 etc). This enables emissions to be evaluated under simulated real-use conditions and allows real-room concentrations to be estimated. Risk of toxic emissions can also be reduced by ensuring that the (S-)VOC content of a material is kept inherently low. Direct thermal desorption / extraction (TD) may be used to measure (S-)VOCs in a wide range of solid, resinous and liquid materials and eliminates complex liquid extraction st eps. This process of thermally extracting the (S)VOC's is a technique that has been used over a number of years for analysis of a range of material types. It is already used by the paint industry (US EPA Method 311 for paints) for evaluating "low VOC" products and the German automotive industry for testing car trim components (MethodVDA 278, 2001). The recent development of a combined Micro-Chamber / Thermal Extraction system, comprising of six micro-chambers (up to 25 mm deep and 50 mm in diameter), which allows rapid cost effective surface or bulk emissions testing on up to 6 samples simultaneously will be presented along with excellent correlation data with conventional emission chamber / cell testing.