Laboratory And On Line Process Rheometers For The Polymer Processing Laboratory

Rheological (flow and deformation) properties are the most important factors affecting the microstructure of polymers, critical process parameters for production/processing, and subsequent product quality. To provide students with hands-on experiences in learning and evaluating the rheological properties of polymers, the Polymer Processing Laboratory at the Kettering University/GMI Engineering & Management Institute has acquired a set of computerinstrumented Laboratory Capillary Rheometer (LCR) and On-Line Process Rheometer (OLPR) manufactured by Goettfert through the support from the National Science Foundation (NSF ILIIP program grant DUE-9650687) in 1996. LCR has long been used as a major tool to measure rheological properties of resins in the plastics industry [1-7], while an increasing number of resin manufacturers and processors are adding OLPR to their process to produce consistent materials and reduce manufacturing costs by monitoring and controlling rheological information during production and processing [8-11]. Through the addition of the LCR and OLPR to the Polymer Processing Laboratory at the Kettering/GMI our students not only can measure the rheological properties of polymer samples through laboratory testing but also monitor the rheological properties of polymer melts directly taken from the process stream of a production line. Both the LCR and OLPR are instrumented with state-of-the-art computer technology which enables them to achieve tasks such as controlling test procedures, collecting and analyzing rheological data, generating material functions, and performing statistical process control and statistical quality control [12,13].