NETZSCH TGA and STA data to Excel (Beta)

Thermogravimetric data from a NETZSCH STA 449 or other TG instrument is stored in .ngb-ss3, .ngb-ds3 or .ngb-dsu files. This page puts it into an Excel workbook with the mass already in percent, a DTG curve and charts, so you can plot, compare and report without Proteus.

What the workbook contains

• Data sheet: time, segment, sample temperature, Mass (%), Mass change (mg), DTG (%/min), and on STA runs the DSC signal in mW/mg and µV with the sensitivity used, then gas flows and furnace channels. Excel charts of mass, DTG and DSC against temperature sit next to the data.
• Segments: every program step with its points and temperature range.
• Temperature program: target temperatures, heating rates, durations, acquisition rates and the purge and protective gas flows of each stage.
• Metadata: sample name and mass, crucible and crucible masses, furnace and carrier, gases, instrument, software version, operator, laboratory and date.

How the values are calculated

• Mass (%) is 100 + 100 × mass change / sample mass, with the sample mass entered in Proteus and stored in the file.
• DTG (%/min) is the slope of a straight line fitted to the mass (%) over ±0.5 minutes around each point. On a Proteus export of a TGA run it agreed within 0.005 %/min (root mean square).
• For Sample + Correction files the correction run is subtracted first, segment by segment on the time axis. On a STA 449 C measurement the corrected mass matched the Proteus export within 0.003 %, while the uncorrected curve differed by more than 5 %. Both are in the workbook.
• A plain sample file can be corrected with a separate correction file (.ngb-bs3) added under "More inputs"; it must use the same temperature program.

Several samples at once

Upload several files or a .zip. You get one workbook with a sheet per file and a summary sheet (sample, mass, points, temperature range, residual mass), a combined CSV with a File column, and an overlay chart of the mass curves.

Pitfalls

• Correction files without a sample mass give Mass change (mg) and DTG (mg/min) only, since a percentage needs the sample mass.
• Excel holds about one million rows per sheet; longer runs are cut in the workbook and complete in the CSV.

Working with DSC data? See NETZSCH DSC data to CSV.

More about what this tool reads and writes: Thermal Analysis File Converter (NETZSCH NGB).