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Special Sale - Final eCup™ Series

For Measuring Viscosity

The eCup requires only 100 micro-liters of fluid to take a measurement!

 

The industry is familiar with kinematic viscosity (centistokes) and dynamic or absolute viscosity (centipoise), which are related as centistokes = centipoise / specific gravity. This instrument introduces a third class of viscosity called acoustic viscosity.

Acoustic viscosity has units of centipoise X specific gravity. Knowledge of the specific gravity allows conversion between these three units at a fixed shear rate and temperature.This method of measuring viscosity employs a shear acoustic wave resonator in contact with the liquid.The viscosity of the liquid determines how thick a layer of fluid is hydro-dynamically coupled to the surface.

ViSmart in Palm of Hand
The loading of the acoustic resonator caused by this viscously-entrained liquid is determined by the thickness and density of the entrained film. The response of an acoustic viscometer is thus proportional to the product of the viscosity, the density and the radian frequency of the vibration in the limit of low frequencies.


Acoustic Wave Resonator Illustration The acoustic wave resonator supports a standing wave through its thickness that travels from the input to the output transducer. As the wave pattern interacts with electrodes on the lower surface (sealed from the liquid) it also interacts with the fluid on the upper surface. The bulk of the liquid is unaffected by the acoustic signal and a thin layer (on the order of microns or microinches) is moved by the vibrating surface (the vibration amplitudes are on the order of a single atomic spacing). As the vibrating surface moves the thin layer the characteristics of the acoustic signal changes; these changes are related to the viscosity of the fluid.

And all of this is accomplished in the packaged ViSmart™ sensor product that measures 1.3 inches square and a little over .5 inches thick.

Historically, for real-time viscosity data, costly and inflexible mechanical products have been used. Up until now there has been no viable “electronic way” to measure viscosity and processors have been forced to measure infrequently or utilize a wide range of methodologies with repeated cost/benefit trade-off.

Vismart Drawing with Legend

 

For process engineers, there is a need for minimizing equipment failures and reducing the cost of analysis using an oil viscosity sensor that operates in real time. The ViSmart™ acoustic wave, resonance based electronic viscosity sensor and measurement systems changes all this and provides a solution oriented product to the oil condition monitoring industry.

 

 

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Features - eCup™


ViSmart Full Photo

Includes one ViSmart™ sensor

  • 4 hr lithium battery powered operation
  • Ergonomically designed for handheld applications
  • Friendly and simple to use interface
  • LCD display for viscosity and temperature readings
  • Thumb down scroll for display options
  • Interfaces to two ViSmart™ viscosity sensors
  • Different ViSmart™ sensors can be tracked
  • USB and TCP/IP connection for data transfer to any PC
  • Log discrete data by fluid, batch and time
  • Optional RTD, pH and pressure sensor input

Physical Specification - eCup™

  • 4.5”W x 9.5”L x 3” Deep

Physical Specification - ViSmart™

  • 1.3”W x 1.3”L x 0.5” Deep


features ViSmart ™
  • Solid-state technology
  • No moving parts
  • Instantaneous and continuous real-time viscosity and temperature measurement
  • Not affected by flow or vibration conditions
  • Orientation of the sensor does not influence the viscosity data. As long as the fluid is in contact with the sensor surface, the viscosity data will be acquired.
  • The ViSmart™ is a high shear rate viscometer. A 1:1 correlation with current low-shear viscometer methods is material dependent and can be generated as a library database for customers. The data can be displayed in acoustic viscosity (AV), centipoise (cP) and Zahn cup-seconds
ViSmart Plug n Play Connector
ViSmart™ Plug-n-Play Connector
  • The ViSmart™ sensor has a proprietary hard coat surface for complete abrasion resistance
  • No calibration required
  • Built for challenging manufacturing environments
  • Can be completely immersed or liquid sample can be simply placed on sensor surface.
  • At the current time the ViSmart™ has been operated by customers at a continuous operating pressure of 250 psi. It is designed to operate at pressures of 750 psi. Operating at pressures greater than 750 psi needs to be tested at customer sites.
  • Portable and cost-effective
  • The ViSmart™ together with the eCup™ (see below) is Wi-Fi capable.
  • The ViSmart™ sensor with an industrial DB25 connector employs a proprietary implementation of the serial peripheral interface (SPI) and allows 0.5 km data transmission (with optional line drivers / receivers).
  • The ViSmart™ when installed in the AVM3003-FL flow cell for in-line applications can be installed with a temperature control module to control the temperature of the flow-through fluid (the module consists of thermoelectric components). The AVM3003-FL comes with several selections of optional o-rings.
  • The ViSmart™ has the ability to integrate other off-the-shelf products for pH, conductivity and RTD measurements.
  • At the current time, the ViSmart™ is being submitted for Class 1, Div 0 UL submission; the eCup™ is being submitted for Class 1, Div II.
  • The ViSmart™ can be deployed for full integration for Intranet viewing or host plant control software.
  • For reactor vat (batch) applications, this instrument offers a tank-holder assembly which allows the ViSmart™ to adjust for vertical height; the point of installation is near the side wall of the reactor vat.
  • Wide standard measurement (0 - 100,000 cP; material dependent) and operating range (-20°C
    - 135°C) with 1% repeatability.
  • Stores viscosity and temperature readings for PC upload and historical views using onboard Flash memory card.
  • Using USB or TCP/IP ports, can attach handheld to any PC and download the data for further processing.
  • Viscosity and temperature data can be imported into an Excel spreadsheet.
  • Using optional VisCon™ software installed on a PC you can easily analyze data and store long term data for historical reference.
  • Instantaneous data in real-time without any moving parts using the ViSmart™ sensor


Available Items
Item Number Item
VI-110010 eCup™ including one ViSmart™ sensor
VI-110050 ViSmart™ acoustic wave viscosity sensor

 

Home   Viscosity   How To Order   Top Of The Page Paul N. Gardner Company, Inc. • Phone 1.800.762.2478 • Fax 954.946.9309