Rheology Services

We have extensive industrial experience in rheology measurements of fluids, ranging from very low viscosity solutions to highly viscous pastes, creams and waxes.  Our experience includes polymer melts, thermosets and elastomers as well as many personal and household care products, cosmetics, OTC pharmaceutical products, prescription drugs, foods, gels, waxes, adhesives, and other compositions.

We can assist you in the evaluation of your products and/or raw materials to improve rheology, identify critical rheological properties, provide direction for improving flow behavior, develop R&D and/or QC rheology measurements protocols, track rheology profiles during stability studies, etc.

When rheology is critical, you'll have our complete attention.

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As in all analytical or mechanical testing, it is important to selected the right tests to meet the testing needs.  We skillfully work with our clients to determine the appropriate test requirements and conditions, keeping in mind the test objective, sample storage/handling requirements, MSDS, selecting the appropriate test conditions, and determine test reproducibility.

We also are diligent in following our internal GLP.  Rheometers are fully calibrated and checked for compliance to manufacturers' specifications, prior to and at the completion of our testing for client samples.  Reports also fully document testing protocols.  

We are expert in experimental rheology.  We hope that you will find our service to be cost-effective and  high quality with an exceptionally good turn-around-time.

Tests are scheduled to provide our customers with a turn-around-time within 24-hours in most cases, at no additional charge.  Data is transmitted electronically or via our intranet service.  Please contact us for additional information.

Dynamic Mechanical Measurements

Depending on your requirements, we can complete strain/stress sweeps, frequency sweeps, time and/or temperature sweeps as a function of strain or stress.  Below is an example of a time sweep during a thermal ramp at 10 radians/second, strain = .05, for a raw material used in an OTC wound care ointment.

Steady Shear Viscometry

There are many way to approach viscosity measurements.  Selection of the appropriate test depends on the nature of the fluid and the objective of the test.  Viscosity for non-Newtonian fluids can be measured during step shear rate measurements, rate sweep measurements, and dynamic mechanical methods as well.  Often a suite of tests is completed to fully document the behavior of the test fluid, spanning resistance to flow at flow inception and at steady state.

Thixotropic loop measurements monitor flow resistance during shear stress or shear rate acceleration and deceleration.  As such, it can be a useful test to simulate a variety of consumer use and manufacturing conditions.  An example of the thixotropic loop behavior of a highly structured dispersion is provided below:

In this example, the full thixotropic loop was completed in a 6 second timeframe.

Confidentiality

We are aware of the need for strict confidentiality for all of our testing and communications.  We protect the confidentiality of our clients and execute CDA's on a routine basis.  

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Last modified: February 04, 2009