How our oil analysis helped a global manufacturer eradicate contamination from their factory and supply chain
How our oil analysis helped a global manufacturer eradicate contamination from their factory and supply chain
DS Smith Newmarket is a global cardboard carton manufacturer. They approached us with an urgent oil analysis request – to examine two of their cartons that had been contaminated with an unidentified substance.
Designed to be used within the pharmaceutical industry in China, the items had become contaminated at some stage between manufacture and end delivery.
We needed to identify if the contamination had occurred at the production or transportation stage
Both the production and transportation of the cartons are under DS Smith Newmarket’s control, and their main concern was to eliminate their premises and supply chain as the source of the contamination.
As well as sharing samples of the contaminated cartons with us, the client provided us with a sample of the oil that had been used during the production process.
The first stage was to get a quality sample from the contaminated cartons
We set to work on using dichloromethane to extract very small but usable amounts of the unidentified substance visible on the contaminated cartons.
The extracted substance, which looked like oily spots and smears, was then subjected to Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) analysis. This analysis is particularly good at identifying organic compounds and was therefore ideal given we were fairly certain the substance on the cartons was oil.
And this is what the analysis revealed:
The chromatogram results showed that the substance was consistent with a long-chain hydrocarbon, which meant it was most likely to be a high viscosity lubricating oil.
The absence of peaks also indicated that the substance didn’t contain any traces of aromatics, such as benzene and naphthalene. This meant that we were able to rule out that it was a fuel oil such as diesel – eliminating the possibility that the contamination had occurred during transportation.
The next step was to test the oil sample from the production line
Our second set of chromatogram results presented us with a completely different picture:
The distinctly different curve indicated that the oil used in production was a completely different substance to the oil that the cardboard had been contaminated with. It was therefore highly unlikely that the contamination had occurred while the cartons were under DS Smith Newmarket’s control.
We enabled the client to eliminate their factory and supply chain as a source of contamination
As a result of our GC-MS analysis, DS Smith Newmarket was able to provide their customer with a comprehensive report that demonstrated they had carried out all possible contamination testing.
Crucially, our oil analysis insight confirmed that it was extremely unlikely the contamination had been caused as a result of DS Smith Newmarket’s actions.
Ultimately, we helped the client identify which stage the contamination most likely occurred and provided them with clear results, having used the best type of oil analysis for the circumstances.
Want to find out more about the economic effect of oil in a manufacturing environment? Read our blog.