Automatic viscosity measuring apparatus with rotor automatically

Details Automatic viscosity measuring apparatus with rotor automatically Automatic viscosity measuring apparatus with rotor automatically

1996-03-29

1998-10-13

Brock, Michael

Measuring and testing

Liquid analysis or analysis of the suspension of solids in a...

Viscosity

73 5435, 483 58, 483 27, 279128, G01N 1114

Patent

active

058214070

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to a rotary viscometer for measuring the viscosity of a liquid specimen and in particular to an automatic rotor attaching/detaching mechanism applied to an off-line automatic viscosity measuring apparatus for automatically measuring a plurality of specimens.


TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

In almost all industrial fields for handling raw material and products in liquid form, such as paint, ink, and semiconductor industries including petrochemical, synthetic chemical engineering, drug, and food industries, the viscosity of liquids is measured, thereby determining whether or not the raw material is suitable, whether the process is proper, and whether the products are good. Such viscosity measurement is mainly intended for quality control as to whether or not the material, intermediate products, and final products are proper in quality.
To inspect intermediate or final products in such various industrial fields, so-called off-line measurement is widely executed wherein specimens provided by sampling the liquids in vessels such as beakers are collected in an analysis chamber where various physical property values of the substances, such as the density, electrical conductivity, pH, and moisture content, are measured intensively. With recent advances in measuring instruments, it has become possible to automatically measure a large number of physical property values in the off-line measurement.
However, viscosity measurement cannot be automated because of the structure of a viscometer as described below and must depend on workers for manual measurement, leading to an obstacle to the reduction in inspection costs or measurement data management.
The reason why conventional rotary viscometers are not suitable for automation of off-line viscosity measurement is because of the structure of the viscosity detection part related to the measurement form. That is, when a detection head of the viscometer is mounted on a mechanical movement manipulation mechanism such as an industrial robot, and is run or moved up and down, the viscometer detection head cannot resist a mechanical shock applied thereto and easily suffers a breakdown. To prevent mutual contamination of liquids by sample liquids adhering to a rotor at the time of measurement, automatic cleaning or replacing of the rotor is required at each measurement. However, the mechanical structure of the conventional viscometer cannot endure an external force applied to the rotor during such an operation.
The structural problem as mentioned above is involved in the properties of the viscometer. That is, to measure the viscosity, the viscometer requires the inevitable function as a high-performance minute torque detector. To detect the minute torque, the bearing friction of a shaft support of a torque detection shaft needs to be small. However, to lower the bearing friction, it is necessary to use a shaft support mechanism comprising a jewel bearing and a pivot in combination as a low friction bearing and to make axial load applied to the jewel bearing as lightweight as possible.
For these reasons, the conventional viscometer must have shaft rotation parts with thin and small-diameter dimensions even at the expense of strength. Inevitably, the rigidity of the torque detection shaft peripheral mechanical portion becomes weak. Further, as is generally known, the bearing mechanism comprising a jewel bearing and a pivot in combination is extremely weak in terms of mechanical shock resistance; this part easily suffers breakdown and has been the Achilles' heel of the rotary viscometer.
To solve such a problem of the conventional rotary viscometer easily suffering a breakdown, the present inventor has filed the application "Rotary viscometer with automatic protector for protecting jewel bearing and pivot" (Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 1-51655 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 2-231549). This previous application is an invention relating to a rotary viscometer wherein a jewel bearing and pivot come in automatic contact with each other only

REFERENCES:
patent: 2812203 (1957-11-01), Scholten
patent: 4649623 (1987-03-01), Schneider et al.
patent: 4761877 (1988-08-01), Rupp
patent: 5041806 (1991-08-01), Enderle et al.

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