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What is the Use of a Texture Analyser?

Crush Tests

Crush tests with a Texture Analyser, delivers a compressive force on the package can be used to determine the mechanical strength of food containers. The same equipment may also perform a piercing test to determine the packing material's toughness or durability. Stretching action on packaging can determine how much force it takes to pull these components, like tapes and seals, apart.

Physical properties of food (mouth feel for example) as well as the mechanical properties of the packaging material measured by Texture Analyser. The following explains how a crush test could be performed on a packaging container shown in image to the right.

In the compression test with Texture Analyser, the packaging container is placed between the compression plate and the base table. The sample is compressed and deformed as the compression plate moves down, the resulting data is automatically calculated to give hardness (force required to crush container) and work done (energy required to crush sample).

Typical test specifications for the instrument might look like the following:

• Test Type:  Compression
• Test Speed: 2.0 mm/s
• Target Distance: 40 mm (Depends on container height)
• Trigger Force: 30 g

Test equipment includes the choice of a probe, in this case the Compression Top Plate Fixture. The Texture Analyser must also have the capability to provide a maximum compressive force that exceeds the crush strength of the packaging container in this case 50kg force capability.

The target distance is chosen so that the probe does not touch the base table otherwise, the Texture Analyser will become overloaded. A compression distance not exceeding 60% of the packaging container height is recommended.

Hardness values will increase relative to the increased penetration depths. Consequently, for comparison purposes, penetration distances must always be reported.

Containers of equal length and size must be used along with a fixed target distance for best results in analysing data from multiple tests.

Crush Test Results

The following graphs show the crushing strength of the packaging container shown in the above image.

Graph 1: Force vs. time to deform a packaging container over a specified distance of 40 mm

Graph 2: Force vs. distance for the deformation of the same packaging container

Observation of Crush Test

The compression plate compresses the package container across the required distance once a trigger force of 30 g is detected, deforming it in the process. After the container collapses, the force appears to rapidly grow to a maximum point (peak load). The initial peak is a measure of the maximum force required to crush the packaging container and is a measure of hardness over the specified distance. The hardness and work done is calculated as the area under the graph in graoh 2 and is a measure of the energy required to crush the packaging container.

Other than hardness and work done values, the test can also provide information on the packaging container’s recoverable deformation, defined as the height recovered by the packaging container on removal of the compression force. The recoverable work done is also calculated, which is the spring-back behaviour of the container against the compression force as the load is removed. This is a measure of the recoverable property of the packaging container after the crush test in Texture Analyser

The table below summarizes the results:

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