Compounding business is attaining maturity and requires an extra effort to provide a better product to the discerning customers from application segments like automobile, consumer electronics etc. The global compounding majors have set up elaborate testing facility to support their businesses. ISO 9000 or 9001 quality programmes are very common to these global compounding majors. The industry is more often tuned to the Statistical Quality Control (SQC) for process and laboratory data. Stringent quality of the products provides an added value. The globalization of the plastics business demands more usage of ISO tests although ASTM tests continue to dominate in North America.

Some major compounders define a continuous improvement of quality by 5% every year. The expectations of customers on quality are increasing every year. More stringent tolerance of the properties is now quite common. To meet the increasing demand of the global customers most of the compounders implement LIMS (Laboratory Information Management Systems). These LIMS are computer-based tools for organizing, analyzing and reporting the laboratory data. Simple physical tests are not adequate any more as the discerning customers demand more analytical properties. It is quite common to use FTIR, Ray fluorescence as well as diffraction. Microscopy is also becoming quite common to determine dispersion at micro-level. The consumer electronics segment also demands closer tolerance on colour measurement as well as implementation of the latest colour measuring techniques.

While global compounders located in the developed region of North America and Europe as well as Japan have taken a lead in the quality enhancements, few compounders from the developing regions have also made initiatives to execute quality measurements. After all, the dynamics of the present compounding business demands tighter and stringent quality products and can determine the difference between a successful and global player against the local low-end commodity product maker.