Coatings Testing

Across the lifecycle of a coating product, rigorous testing and analysis are required to ensure product quality is maintained, that all end-use application specifications or regulatory compliance requirements are met, or to find alternative coatings for an existing application due to considerations such as green compliance goals or the need to improve performance.

The chemical composition and physical properties of coatings have a direct impact on their performance. Accordingly, it is essential to conduct comprehensive coating testing and analysis programs. These often require highly specialised analytical equipment and should be conducted by scientists who have industry coatings application experience and specialist insight in the area.

Coating Testing Services Overview

Accreditation:  Our laboratory network includes labs accredited under ISO/IEC 17025, ensuring credible testing performed by expert staff and state-of-the-art instrumentation. We perform testing aligned with ISO, ASTM, and other international standards.

Experience: Our coatings experts have over 30 years of experience supporting innovators who are developing or producing coating products.

Applications: We have significant knowledge of materials testing for paint and coatings and specific requirements for powder coatings, polymers, aerosols, adhesives, speciality coatings, paints, inks, toners, lacquers, multilayer systems, laminates, thin-films, hot melt and sealants. 

Industry Knowledge: Spans coating applications within food packaging, medical device, automotive, electronics, aerospace, oil and petroleum exploration, construction, textiles, marine and pipeline applications.

Using a broad scope of coating testing methods, we work with many new and advanced coating materials such as graphene, nanomaterials, bio-based materials and novel polymers-based products. We can generate data to allow comparison with established marketed products tested for a specific performance environment, to aid in the improvement of the product or benchmarking against different formulations. 

Our coating testing services can help you to advance your understanding of your coating product through robust testing using advanced instrumentation, taking you beyond just the test result, instead, providing the insight and guidance you need to achieve your goals and develop your product.

Coatings Development Support
In the product development phase, we support end-use performance through mechanical property testing and physical testing for coatings, including scratch resistance, conductivity, thermal stability, or detailed analysis of formulations, and how they may affect cure profiles. We support your research, to help you gain an understanding of the coating’s fundamental properties, performance and chemical composition.

Our dedicated coating laboratories design application studies that include substrate surface interactions, including contact angle, wettability, surface tension and surface free energy. We can also perform accelerated weathering tests for coatings, corrosion testing, studies to support sourcing or raw material substitution, and performance testing to check that end-user specifications are met. 

Production Support
In the final or pre-production phase, the insight we can bring will help you to respond to questions regarding coating quality control, quality assurance, or meeting regulatory requirements.

Post-Market Launch Support
Post-market launch, our expert, impartial advice is invaluable to support coating failure analysis and drive swift resolution of contamination investigations.

Coatings Chemical Testing
Our analytical and polymer scientists perform chemical analysis of coating formulations delivering invaluable information to support either formulation development or competitive product analysis. We also determine and identify VOC content to establish regulatory compliance with either bespoke or industry standards.

Coatings Contamination Resolution
Our contamination testing lab provides a strategic response to contamination of a coating product, focusing on the accurate identification of the contaminant's nature and determining its source to achieve swift resolution. We are experienced in resolving particulate contamination projects and also in the determination of trace organic and inorganic impurities identification.

Coatings Weathering Testing
We can also perform barrier property testing, accelerated weathering, chemical resistance and corrosion testing, including exposure to ultra-violet light or chemical environments under controlled temperature and humidity conditions.

Coatings Testing Analytical Expertise
Spectroscopic techniques such as fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR spectroscopy) or Raman spectroscopy provide chemical screening and identification of components. When used in product formulation studies, the data can help you to understand the competitor formulation and the raw materials used.

Our microscopy analysis experts use a wide range of cutting-edge microscopy technology, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDS), optical digital microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy, to view, analyse and measure coating surface features to investigate coating products and surface/surface interactions. Our SEM-EDS elemental mapping capability can provide information on the elemental distribution at surfaces, interlaminar layers or materials distributed within the coating matrix. X-ray fluorescence mapping, Raman microscopy, or FTIR-microscopy mapping can provide spatially resolved chemical information about applied coatings or substrates.

We use an array of advanced instrumentation as part of  formulation support projects including gas chromatography (GC), ion chromatography (IC), high- pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS), gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Your Coating Testing Lab Partner
Partner with Intertek and gain the confidence of proven expertise, precise results, and the global resources you need to bring high-performing, compliant coatings and thin films to market faster. Contact our team now to discuss your testing needs.