Rheokinematics for Product Development -- Formulation Screening in
Rotational Rheometers
Abstract
Product formulations for industrial processes are typically developed at
lab-scale. However, the mixing conditions are not easily mimicked in the
lab. A rotational device is proposed in this work as a fast lab-scale
formulation development, which enables mimicking the mixing conditions
in the industrial process. The geometrical configurations of the
rotational device are from rheometry devices (plate-plate and
cone-plate). The main advantages of this method are the small amounts of
raw materials, and shorter testing times. This methodology is applied to
an industrial case study, the Reaction Injection Moulding (RIM) process.
The mixing length scales evolution in the rotational rheometer were
matched to those in RIM machines. The main novelty of this work is the
introduction of a protocol that bridges the processing conditions at lab
using small amounts of raw materials to high throughput continuous flow
reactors.