Newsletter - November 2007

Welcome to the November 2007 issue of the CSMA newsletter

3DP Technique Quantifies Hair Topography - A Case Study

Studying the effect of hair care products is big business. CSMA have an established reputation in CHEMICALLY mapping hair care products across the hair surface. Now 3DP (3D Non Contact Surface Profiling) has been introduced to assess PHYSICAL properties. 3DP provides quantified images of the hair surface and comparison of surface properties.

Objective
CSMA was commissioned to quantify the effect of a particular hair conditioner brand on the surface topography of hair. Of particular interest was the effect on the scale features along a hair. What was needed was a fast method with high sample throughput to maximise the number of samples and thus improve the statistical basis of the experiment.

Results
Below we see a contour map showing scale features along one hair and the corresponding line scan.
Around 150 microns of the hair is shown although several mm can be scanned if required.

The height of the hair scales can clearly be observed from the line scan. A comparison of the scale height before and after conditioning showed a reduction from 720 nm to 620 nm upon conditioning (a reduction of 12.7%)

* values are a mean average of 75 measurements (15 measurements each on 5 hair samples).

Conclusion
3DP is quickly becoming the “norm” for hair analysis. The technique is non-contacting and conducted in atmosphere and the sample throughput is high enabling large sample numbers to be analysed.

Surface Analysis Workshop 2008

Further to the success of the 2007 surface analysis workshop the next workshop will take place on the 27th Feb 2008 at our Stoke-on-Trent headquarters.
The day will be split into a morning of presentations highlighting the benefits of surface and interface analysis and including industry-based case studies.
Laboratory demonstrations will take place in the afternoon showcasing techniques such as XPS, ToFSIMS, DSIMS and White-light interferometry (3DP).
There will also be opportunities to meet the CSMA scientific team and time set aside for confidential one-to-one discussions on specific issues.

For further details please click here.

And the winner is....

Aine Ruddy of Boston Scientific Galway was the lucky winner of a Nokia E70 smart phone at this year’s MEDTEC Ireland event in September. The cutting edge technology phone was chosen as a prize in keeping with CSMA’s state-of-the-art equipment and unrivalled surface analysis techniques. Ursula Thompson, CSMA’s representative in Ireland presented the prize shortly after the event. After the success of the Irish exhibition CSMA will be exhibiting at MEDTEC UK on the 13th/14th Feb 2008, CSMA representatives will be on hand to discuss issues ranging from biopolymers to drug-coated medical devices to cleanliness validation. Visit CSMA on stand 719.

CSMA Ltd Hosts European Plasma Technology Seminar

Europe’s leaders in plasma technology descended on Stoke-on-Trent during October to promote the quite staggering benefits potentially available from its use in the areas of textile finishing, food packaging and medical implants. Plasma processes are not only liquid-free they are also intrinsically low energy, low materials consuming and low waste generating thereby offering cost-savings to both producers and consumers whilst at the same time markedly reducing the environmental burden.