Product deformulation is often referred to as reverse engineering of chemical formulations. This is undertaken by an Analytical Chemistry Lab. Chemical deformulation of materials, as well as products,are often done on a large scale by the analytical labs. With the help of product deformulation, one can get a specific set of information about the composition of the formulated products, which could be material or an end product. Product deformulation helps can easily determine the substances or the chemicals that have been used for manufacturing the product. Product deformulationmight appear as an easy process, but it could be extremely challenging to implement.
Product deformulation is done by the analytical chemists, who are associated with an analytical chemistry lab. These analytical chemists apply their expert knowledge in order to perform reverse engineering of the products. This reverse engineering leads to deformulation of products. This is a field, where prior industry experience is definitely required to perform product deformulation. Industry knowledge is the key here. The analystmakes out the constituent materials through product deformulation. They also check how the constituent materials perform individually, and how they interact with each other. This involves a systematic analysis of the product.
One might simply ask, why a company needs to spend on product deformulation analysis? This question is quite relevant, because product deformulation is a complex process undertaken by an analytical chemistry cab, and involves a certain level of cost. So, this is not something that is cheaper and investment made by a company on product deformulation needs to be justified at a later stage. Well, it can be said that the investment on product deformulation can be justified effectively, as the result derived from product deformulation can be used for different purposes.
First of all, the derived results can be used for product innovation. It will also highlight how quality control for the product can be accomplished. Since, the results highlight the effect of interaction amongst the constituent materials, which can be again used as an input for improving the product performance. Since the negative effects generated from the interaction between the constituent materials can make the product weaker exhibiting inferior quality. The results can be used for patent infringement as well, where the company can patent the products along with the constituents that it has used to develop that particular product. Because of these benefits, the reverse engineering analysis has gained a lot of popularity.
A detailed product deformulation analysis will provide a thorough understanding of the components involved in the formulation. It will help to understand the ingredient concentration. The analysis report will demonstrate how the components as well as the ingredients interact with each other and perform. Some of the key industries where product deformulation has already found wide acceptance is:
- Chemical
- Beauty and Personal Care
- Cosmetics
- Food processing
- Medical Devices
- Construction
- Electronics
- Packaging
- Polymers
So, it can be seen that product deformulation support multiple industries. These industries can implement the input derived from product deformulation to many applications such as fragrances manufacturing, coatings, polymer additives, biocides, rheology agents., pigments, dyes, surface treatment agents, preservatives and surfactants.
Many companies have taken the help of reverse engineering analysis to fight patent infringement legally. They have also used product deformulation for developing a particular chemical technology that can be used to make the product much more innovative. Moreover, manufacturers monitor the product quality feedback over a period of time and use product deformulation analysis to control the quality issues. Modern day, chemical analysts working with analyticalchemistry Lab can do more with product deformulation. They can help the manufacturer with product development, competitor product analysis, product benchmarking and many more.