1. Required Furnace and Temperature Ranges • Must have vertical top loading design furnace • Balance design must be below the sample • The system must cover the range from -150C to 1600C using a DSC probe • Temperature resolution must be 0.001 K • Precision must be at least +- 0.3 C. • The system must preform simultaneous TGA and DSC measurements • The system must be corrosion resistant and capable of handling reactive gases over the full temperature range. 2. Balance Requirements • The instrument must have a digital balance • Balance must compensate the weight of the sample carrier electronically without the use of a counterweight • Balance capacity of at least 35 g • Balance resolution of 0.1 µg over the measurement range • Balance and software must be able to automatically read the sample weight • System should be able to operate without a chiller 3. Carrier Requirements • Carriers must be user changeable • Specific heat measurements must be available with the TGA-DSC carrier up to 1500C 4. Display Requirements • Instrument must have integrated display 5. Atmosphere Requirements • Must be vacuum tight • Must be able to purge the sample chamber with a protective gas • The system must allow for measurements in inert, oxidizing, reducing, vacuum, and corrosive atmospheres 6. Calibration Requirements • Temperature calibrations without magnetic standards • A set of standard samples for specific heat should be available 7. System Software • Software must include a curve recognition and database system for thermal analysis • Must be able to analyze TGA and DSC measurements with included software
