Viscometer tubes, Dual-solvent washing, Thermistor operation – Cannon Instrument miniAV-X User Manual
Page 82: Timing bulb determination
CANNON
®
miniAV-X Automatic Viscometer with VISCPRO
®
Instruction & Operation Manual
Version 1.Ob— March, 2012;
CANNON
®
Instrument Company
2139 High Tech Road • State College, PA 16803 • USA
76
WARNING
Waste sample/solvents can present possible environmental and health
hazards. Dispose of all waste materials in accordance with environmental
and safety regulations.
Dual-solvent washing
For testing heavy or hard-to-clean materials,
CANNON
®
Instrument
Company recommends a dual-solvent washing system. The dual-solvent
washing process uses two different solvents. The first wash might
ordinarily use a heavy solvent to clean the sample residue out of the
viscometer tubes. The second wash might use a lighter solvent to remove
any remaining sample/solvent residue and dry the viscometer tube. Test
temperature(s) must be carefully considered when choosing solvents.
Dual-solvent action
To engage the dual-solvent washing, make certain that desired wash
options are selected in the VISCPRO
®
software for
Solvent A
(washing
solvent) and
Solvent B
(drying solvent). Follow the instructions in the
Installation section of this manual to correctly configure the instrument
for dual solvent operation.
Viscometer tubes
The miniAV-X is equipped with a borosilicate glass capillary viscometer
tube having a wide viscosity range. The upper viscosity limit is up to 100
times the lower viscosity limit, depending on the tube type. Each 100-
fold viscometer tube contains three thermistors used for sensing the level
of the sample within the tube.
Thermistor operation
The tube thermistor detects the change in thermistor temperature associ-
ated with the passing of the sample meniscus, and records the time
accurately to within one-hundredth (0.01) of a second.
Timing bulb determination
As the sample is drawn into the viscometer tube, the VISCPRO
®
software
automatically determines which timing bulb will be used to test the
sample.
The sample will be drawn into the bulb above the upper timing ther-
mistor. That bulb will serve as the overflow bulb for that particular test
run.
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>
NOTE
The numbers listed in this table are approximations, not absolute values.