CEAST USA INC.
Booth N-5406

What's Hot! CEAST will introduce two new test instruments: the MFT 130 semi-automatic melt index tester with automatic, variable compacting force and the RESILVIS automatic Izod and Charpy impact pendulum.

The MFT 130 melt flow index instrument is designed to maximize data repeatability and optimize laboratory man-hour resources in production control and R&D environments. It is said to resolve problems associated with 'fractional melts,' where flow rates lower than 0.5 g/10 min are too slow to measure accurately with standard melt indexers, and where the difference between two or more operators is more critical and causes troublesome spreads in data uniformity.

This latter problem can be described as the 'Tarzan-Jane' effect: when compacting very low melt flow index materials, the amount of force necessary is usually greater, especially if it is necessary to expel excess material to get the piston to the correct start point.

With the MFT 130 the operator can program a constant compacting force of up to 130 kg, followed by an automatic pre-heating cycle, and the automatic application of weights on to the piston for the test itself. Apart from reducing operator intervention to a minimum the automation of all phases of the test, except loading and cleaning, gives lab managers the power to create precise and reproducible test regimes suited to each different material.

In order to achieve greater precision, the MFT 130 uses a digital encoder to measure piston travel and can measure up to 40 data points per test. The measurement field can be reduced to as little as 2.5 mm, test start point can be selected and a maximum test time can be determined so that data will be stored even if the piston has not traveled the full distance. These features mean that overall test cycle time can be kept to a minimum for low melt flow index materials, without compromising either accuracy or repeatability.

Also new is the RESILVIS a fully automatic Izod and Charpy impact testing system capable of conditioning and impacting specimens in a temperature range between -70 and 100 C.

Manual pendulum impact testing is extremely time-expensive because the operator must attend each single impact. However, the traditional Izod and Charpy tests are ideal for automation because the actual impact event is of very short duration. The trick is to develop a fast and accurate specimen loading system in order to sustain periods of high cycle rate without operator intervention and thus benefit from considerable time savings.

CEAST has done this with the RESILVIS, which will impact specimens at a rate of around 3/min. At such a rate it is now easy to store tens of thousands of impact values per year per system. The RESILVIS has optional automatic break-type identification and is also designed to work with the DAS 4000 instrumented impact system so that complete force-time curves can be stored.

Existing Products On Display The Melt Flow Junior, a simple, manual melt flow index tester; the Rheo Logic 1000, a PC-controlled capillary rheometer; the Dart Tester, a medium-range drop weight impact tester; the Hobbit bench-top/portable drop weight tester; the DAS 4000 high-speed data acquisition system for instrumented impact testing; the Automatic Notchvis, for notching up to 50 Izod-Charpy specimens/ cycle; and the Impactor Junior Izod-Charpy impactpendulum Circle 229

Booth Personnel David Grosso, Steve Knight, Keith Berry, Gerard Nelson

Key Contact Gerard Nelson, Area Sales Mgr. ­ Tel: 803-548-6093; Fax: 803-548-1954;
E-mail: [email protected]