Does Rheology Matter To Manufacturing

By Robert McGregor, Global Marketing and High End Product Manager, Brookfield Engineering Laboratories, Inc.

You bet it does, whether or not manufacturing realizes it. Rheology is the science that looks at how materials flow. Whether the product is a liquid, cream, paste, or solid, the manufacturing process must transfer raw ingredients through multiple stages to create the finished product. The ability to pump, mix, transfer, store and fill the product are processes that rely on proper rheological analysis by R&D to ensure both flowability and stability at every step.

In the case of liquid and semi-solid products, rheometers are the scientific tools used to evaluate new formulations by R&D. On the production floor and in the QC Lab, viscometers are typically specified for the same purpose. What’s the difference between rheometers and viscometers? Can the latter stand up and do the job properly so that manufacturing doesn’t experience flow behavior problems or instability in the final product? This article will show that viscometers can do the job without question and may have capability to do even more.

They provide the capability to shear the material over a continuously broad range of shear stresses and/or shear rates. The instrument can do both and is therefore a more expensive investment, whereas the instrument runs only in controlled rate mode, but is more affordable. R&D will choose between the two based on the type of material under test and the amount of information that is needed.