Application Support
Chemical products only deliver value when they work correctly in your specific formulation or process. Our application support team bridges the gap between chemistry and real-world manufacturing — from reference formulation development and on-site trial assistance to root-cause troubleshooting and regulatory compliance evaluation.
Formulation Development & Optimisation
Coatings · Adhesives · Plastics · Personal Care
Downstream customers rarely use a single chemical in isolation — they incorporate it into a multi-component formulation or production process. Our application chemists work in the laboratory to simulate your end-use conditions and develop reference formulations that give you a validated starting point, reducing trial time and raw material waste.
Coatings & Adhesives
We evaluate new resins, crosslinkers, and additives across different solvent systems and cure conditions, measuring dry time, adhesion, gloss, flexibility, and chemical resistance. Results are presented as optimised formulation ratios with performance benchmarks against your current system.
Plastics Compounding & Modification
Adding flame retardants, antioxidants, UV stabilisers, or impact modifiers to a polymer matrix requires careful balance — improving one property must not compromise another. We provide loading-level recommendations that meet safety standards while preserving the mechanical and thermal properties of the base resin.
Personal Care & Home Care
Surfactant selection, thickener compatibility, and preservative efficacy all interact in complex ways. For rinse-off and leave-on products alike, we test foaming, viscosity, mildness, and stability — delivering a working formulation your production team can immediately scale up.
On-site Trial Support & Scale-up
Factory Trials · Parameter Setting · Scale-up Engineering
Laboratory results do not always transfer directly to production. When you introduce a new chemical into your manufacturing line, our application engineers are available on-site to assist with parameter adjustment, equipment compatibility, and the engineering challenges that arise during scale-up from bench to production scale.
Production Parameter Adjustment
Every production line has its own characteristics — injection moulding temperatures, reactor agitation speeds, dyeing bath pH, or coating line speed. We adjust process parameters to match the behaviour of the new chemical to your existing equipment, minimising downtime and trial material cost.
Scale-up from Laboratory to Production
The transition from gram-scale laboratory work to tonne-scale production introduces engineering challenges that are invisible at the bench — heat dissipation, viscosity change under shear, mixing homogeneity, and reaction exotherms. We identify these issues during trial runs and recommend engineering controls before full production commitment.
Trial Batch Documentation
On-site trials generate valuable process data. We document every trial batch — input quantities, process parameters, observations, and output measurements — providing a reproducible process record that your production team can reference for subsequent runs.
Troubleshooting & Complaint Handling
Defect Diagnosis · Root Cause Analysis · Resolution
When quality defects appear during production, rapid and accurate root cause identification is critical to minimising production loss. Our troubleshooting service combines instrumental analysis, process review, and raw material testing to isolate the source of the problem — and distinguish between supplier material quality issues and process or formulation faults on the customer side.
Defect Diagnosis & Instrument Analysis
Common defects such as fish-eyes in plastic film, delamination in coatings, or precipitation in liquid formulations each have a diagnostic fingerprint. We collect production samples and apply FTIR spectroscopy, TGA, DSC, or particle size analysis to identify whether the root cause is raw material contamination, moisture ingress, thermal degradation, or incompatibility between components.
Responsibility Assessment
A critical — and often sensitive — part of complaint handling is determining whether a defect originates from batch quality deviation in the supplied chemical, or from a change in the customer's process conditions, formulation, or incoming material. We conduct this assessment objectively, reviewing CoA data, retained samples, and production records from both sides.
Corrective Action & Prevention
Once the root cause is established, we issue a written corrective action report covering immediate remediation steps, process adjustments, and — where the fault lies with the supplied material — a formal 8D or CAPA response with batch replacement or credit. Systemic issues are escalated to a preventive action programme.
Performance Evaluation & Benchmarking
Ageing Tests · Compliance Testing · Total Cost Analysis
Selecting a new chemical supplier requires objective evidence that the product delivers equivalent or superior performance to the incumbent. Our performance evaluation service provides the technical data your procurement and R&D teams need to make a justified switch — and the data your sales team needs to demonstrate value to prospects.
Accelerated Ageing & Durability Testing
We simulate long-term environmental exposure using accelerated protocols — salt spray (ASTM B117), UV weathering (ASTM G154), thermal cycling, and humidity cabinet testing. The resulting data predicts how a material will perform over months or years of service life, allowing you to make specification decisions based on projected durability rather than short-term properties alone.
Regulatory & Compliance Verification
Downstream industries impose specific compliance requirements: food contact applications require FDA or EU 10/2011 conformity; automotive interiors must meet low VOC emission standards (GMW15634, VDA 278); electronics components must comply with RoHS and REACH SVHC restrictions. We coordinate the appropriate testing and collect the supporting documentation needed for your compliance file.
Total Cost of Use Analysis
A higher-priced specialty additive may reduce consumption of other raw materials, extend maintenance intervals, or eliminate a downstream processing step — delivering a lower total cost of production despite the higher unit price. We model these trade-offs with your actual production data to provide a quantified cost-of-use comparison rather than a simple price comparison.
Industries We Support
Application support is available across the following sectors.
Facing a formulation or process challenge?
Describe your application, the chemical product involved, and the specific problem or goal. Our team will assess the enquiry and propose a support approach — whether remote technical guidance, laboratory evaluation, or an on-site visit.