SineWave
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Chemical Testing for businesses in the USA?
After several hours of googling and calling different labs around the country, it seems much harder to find a lab that can do industrial chemical
testing than I previously thought. Most of the labs I contacted only test for very specific things like typical asbestos, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde,
etc. Few labs could give me a straight answer, and many said they would have to know exactly what I was trying to get tested before they could test
it. We import far too many chemicals to know that off the top of my head, and most labs seemed to have a very fixed list of what they could test for.
I'm hoping to find a lab that can test and verify purity with something like HPLC of various samples that I may have. I'm mainly looking for purity
analysis. Compound verification is not something that concerns me much. As everyone knows importing large order can be prone to problems, and I
basically want to make sure the COA's that companies provide me match somewhat close to the respective purities of products. We haven't had many
problems up to this point but we are branching out soon and cannot do it without a reliable manner to test our products.
I'm sorry of this is in the wrong forum, but it seemed most suited to post it here. Business or not I figure there would be some people here that
might have some suggestions. I've called over 15 labs with no success, and am currently awaiting a call back from a local university lab that may be
able to offer some advice I am hoping.
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Etaoin Shrdlu
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How would you get a purity analysis without compound verification? Say you send me pristine n-butyl acetate labeled as isopropyl alcohol. I get back
to you two days later: "Yep, that was 99.9% pure." Helpful how? Are you looking for purity as in "no heavy metals," or "X% of what it says on the
label," or "not cut with salt," or what?
What are you testing? This is an important question.
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SineWave
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I am assuming labs that do this sort of testing offer a much broader array of tests as a sort of package. We never import anything questionable,
mostly various industrial chemicals and reagents. We are just direly in need of a lab who we can arrange something with long-term. The more services
they offer, the better I would think.
Our main concern is verifying that our product has not been cut with some diluent. Generally we have never had a problem with the companies that we
work with, but as with any growing company, we would like to grow our analysis capabilities as well. For right now, purchasing hundred-thousand dollar
analysis equipment and hiring trained chemists to run it is not within our scope - that would seem a bit overkill anyways. I doubt we are the only
company in the USA that has compounds tested.
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Chemosynthesis
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Part of the issue is likely cost. Do you send them a price point for your analyses? That will dictate what tests they run, and what the material is
will factor into both instrument (I.e. GC or LC-MS) and their waste disposal. I partially remember a great story about a police department here
requesting analysis of some low level radioactive material to determine if there was a risk that a suspect was making a dirty bomb or something.
The exact metal identity eludes me at the moment, but anyway, they got a small quantity tested for a certain price point. Lab concluded what it was
for them, and said while radioactive, it posed inconsequential risk to the public. Local PD, relieved, then asked how to dispose of it, which was
actually prohibitively expensive despite not being mixed waste nor really hazardous. Suddenly they requested to re-test a new sample... a couple kilos
of material. Luckily the lab didn't bite, and politely declined, leaving the police to figure out what to do with it.
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SineWave
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That's part of the problem, I can't find any labs that offer these services. None of the labs I talked to did testing for general
laboratory/industrial reagents. They all had specific tests which sounded like they tested industrial products for things like lead, asbestos,
formaldehyde, and other types of very general things. A number of labs told me they had a longer list of things that they could not test than they
could. In fact, most of them seemed extremely unhelpful and uncooperative in spite of explaining my extremely moderate or simple needs. A lot of those
labs contact information was given to me by my local hazardous waste disposal center, and looking at their websites, they did not seem to be "small
companies".
None of the labs I contacted were able to give me any pricing or anything without knowing exactly what they were testing, even though I told them
exactly the type of analysis I was looking for. It was very unusual, most of the labs seemed extremely "hush hush", when I asked them what sorts of
things they weren't allowed to test. It was extremely unusual and I don't feel there was anything odd about my request.
I really did not think it would be this hard to find a lab that does basic chemical testing for businesses. What exactly do they think I would want
tested that they are "not allowed to test"? There are tons of labs around the country that test for drugs, but nothing I am needing testing is
biologically active. I don't really know what these labs aren't allowed to test because they were extremely strict on not being allowed to tell me
anything.
More importantly, we get so many imports that I really need to find a reliable lab that can test them on a contractual basis, where I don't have a
huge hassle in "vetting" each and every chemical with them. The stuff we work with is such a huge variety, from various solvents, liquid and powder
reagents, transition metal salts, not so reactive compounds, and some possibly air sensitive compounds. Does this sort of analysis service not exist
like I thought it would?
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Etaoin Shrdlu
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A lot of labs really will only test solvents, or only do polymer identification, etcetera. Pricing varies wildly depending on what exactly you
actually want tested, and what data you want out of it. I'd be really surprised if anyone was willing to give an estimate on testing "such a huge
variety." Did you try giving them a list of what you import most frequently?
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Dr.Bob
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Part of this depends on where you are. Many universities and some independent companies have analytical labs that sometimes take outside samples.
If you cover that many different areas, it would require a pretty good lab, as testing organics, salts and metals all require different techniques.
I know a few places that do certain testing, but none cover that wide of a range, but it would not be practical to have to ship samples across the
country, so your location would be needed to make a useful suggestion. Years ago I worked for a synthesis company that did some analysis for other
companies as a side business, and I can think of others, but that is not nearly as common now.
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