It appears that many x-ray detectable plastics are designed to a price point, rather than to detectability targets.
A few of our customers for metal & x-ray detectable plastics had struggled with alternative materials for a while before approaching us, and there seem to be two recurring issues that typically led them to switch…
Some x-ray detectable plastics simply don’t work.
A while ago, we compared three different detectable plastics with our Minebea Dylight. All three were moulded from the same base material and they were passed through the Minebea in a tub of sugar. The results are shown in the photo above.
The middle disc was made with one of our SCOPIC metal and x-ray detectable plastic masterbatches. Very obviously detectable.
The barely discernible disc on the left was a customer’s standard product. Despite being marketed as x-ray detectable, it was missed by the detector (there’s no blue/red square around it indicating detection). That said, it’s by no means the worst we’ve seen 🙁
The right hand disc was moulded with a competitor’s masterbatch. It is only marginally less x-ray detectable and would appear to be a good alternative to SCOPIC. Or was it?
Some x-ray detectable plastics have severely compromised physical properties
Detectability is obviously important, but often overlooked are the implications of detectable additives on mechanical & functional performance. Improving the detectability of a component is of limited value if the component is then so mechanically compromised that failure becomes a certainty rather than a remote possibility. As a matter of course, we subject modified materials to a series of tests to ensure they remain within the required performance parameters.
Watch the video below for a nice example of a truly awful x-ray detectable plastic (ABS) one of our customers was using for some years before approaching us.
Have you encountered products that are mechanically compromised by their detectable additive?
They really don’t need to be… and at Radical Materials we can help make sure of that.
