Improvement of the test procedure of an environmental stress cracking resistance test of high-density polythelene

The environmental stress cracking resistance (ESCR) testing provides the understanding of the resistance of polyolefins against common environmental stress cracking (ESC) agents. Currently, this test needs an improvement in terms of retrieving such improved data which are used to avoid unexpected long-term failures of polyolefin products. Thus, an investigation has been done with regards on the root causes of the variability of ESCR test data with an emphasis on ASTM D1693 with either the use of statistical or Six Sigma methodology. This test will then be modified with the proposal of some critical steps of the ESCR test procedure which are based on the investigated root causes. Furthermore, the variability of the notch fabrication will be tried to be eliminated with the introduction of a newly designed notcher.