​Brookfield process viscometer applications

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PRINTING & COATINGS

Printing Flexographic gravure 
​Automatic viscosity control

Conformal coating of pcb's

Can coatings & metal decoration

Lithium battery slurry

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OIL & GAS

Fracturing fluid viscosity

​Drilling mud viscosity

Cuttings re-injection

Bitumen

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FOOD VISCOSITY

Batter viscosity
Spray drying control

• Flexo & Gravure Printing
• PCB conformal coating
• Can coating
• Battery slurry 

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Viscosity control systems are commonly used in solvent based printing and coating applications where evaporation increases viscosity, affects colour, increases stops for cleaning and increases consumption by as much as 20%!
Use of a Brookfield viscosity control system will accurately maintain the viscosity of your process throughout a production run.
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To assure the uniform application of water-based inks on a variety of substrates, it is
necessary to control viscosity.   The viscosity of waterbased inks is affected by evaporation and often the pH. In flexographic water-based inks the resing starts to come out of solution if the pH is not maintained within certain limits leading to an irreversible degradation of ink quality.
Failure to maintain the proper viscosity and pH settings for water-based inks can result in: 
Ink, varnish and solvent additions that aren't properly proportioned
Higher costs due to excessive ink consumption
​Colours being too dark or dense or washed out after manual solvent  additions
Ink reservoirs requiring frequent viscosity or pH adjustments during press runs
Large fluid additions to reservoir will disrupt ink formulation
Longer press run times to correct or compensate for the above problems

Viscosity measurement & control of pcb conformal coating is well suited to Brookfield process viscometers.
Conformal or printed circuit board (pcb) coating is typically a thin polymer film which can be  applied using a dip coating process at a thickness 25-250 μm to circuit boards to act as protection against moisture, dust, chemicals, and large changes in temperature. The coating ‘conforms’ to the contours of a PCB to protect the board’s components.   Conformal coatings also reduce the risk of short circuits between components.

The correct viscosity of the coating is vital to achieving the correct coverage on the circuit board. Although the coatings  used are usually based on slow or low volatility solvents viscosity changes over time and leads to poor coating coverage, increased consumption and ultimately rejects.

AST100 viscosity sensor for can coating

• When viscosity is NOT controlled, varnish is overused to ensure Q.C. passes.
  
• When viscosity IS controlled, the OV coating weight can be applied more ​​accurately saving 25% of the varnish.
• When less varnish is used the can also dries quicker. This allows higher throughput and/or less heat and energy to be used.
• Using less varnish means less sticky varnish fling and build up on the
• process conveyor. Process runs smoother and less downtime needed for cleaning.
• Less chance for varnish getting on mandrel and causing internal lacquer miss coats which leads to can leaks.

TT100 process viscometer  - controlled shear rate viscosity measurement of battery slurry

Lithium battery slurry has to to be coated at a precise thickness on the cathode and anode.   The TT100 process viscometer is able to measure the highly shear sensitive lithium battery slurry accurately. Concentric cylinder measurement offers mPas values at defined shear rates, something that many other modern viscometers are not able to do.

Contact us for a quotation or for more information about Process viscometers

Issues:

• Evaporation of solvent or water increases viscosity over time
• Supply tote may have higher or lower viscosity

Viscosity control options

1. Use interval / dose control cycle for solvent addition
2. Regulate temperature in process stream
3. Control viscosity when Recirc pump is energized