The MTR can process from 10g to 25 g of your material, depending on the formulation, meaning barely any material is wasted in experiments. The machine will very quickly tell you the ideal amount of liquid to add. The user may have a start point in mind but this may result in a formulation that is too wet or too dry. The iterations may be repeated, but this can be wasteful in terms of materials and time.
The MTR removes most of the trial-and-error work and gives an ideal starting point.
The Mixer Torque Rheometer. Will it help you to save time and product?
One big challenge in formulation development is finding the balance between the material being wet enough to extrude but not too wet to spheronize. In most cases, there is an optimum amount of wetness that will work best for both processes.
The MTR will allow you to estimate or measure what that area might be and to narrow it down and save you a lot of additional work (time and money and product) which are the primary, initial goals.
- Narrow down how much liquid to use. These ratios cannot be found theoretically, and must be found experimentally.
- It cuts down on the amount of work and time it takes to get to the right answer.
- Save time and cost by making sure you have got the balance right with the amount of liquid you put into your solid formulation.
Some formulations are very "forgiving", and liquid can be varied a lot, but some have to exactly right for extrusion and spheronization to work. The only way to find this out (without the MTR) is with numerous trials, in a systematic trial and error process. Example Put in 50% (ratio) binder, then 40% etc.... Run a single trial (which could take 30 mins) to narrow in upon the optimum liquid point and you can find out if your process (for your materials) will be reasonably easy or whether it will have to be exact.
Mixing
The MTR will help you to optimize mixing time. The most important effect of mixing time and how it will affect the resulting formulation is often misunderstood and overlooked. See a case study about the importance of mixing time here. (opens in new window).
The MTR will allow you to look at an optimum mixing level and demonstrate what happens if you under or over mix.
Time and Materials
The MTR cuts the time required, the number of repetitions of an experiment and reduces the amount of material you need to use. If your materials are expensive and/or difficult to obtain then this instrument is ideal for your development. Read more about saving time and cost in your formulation development.
Production/Manufacture
The MTR is ideal for use as a quality control measurement (consistency) for production lines. It has been proven in some cases to save or stop potential losses of thousands of dollars, even as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single manufacturing schedule for a single week. Read more about the use of the MTR in quality control for production.
In Summary
The Mixer Torque Rheometer does 3 basic things.
- save time and money determining your binder ratio (the right proportion between dry powder and liquid binder)
- allow you make sure your product is mixed for the optimum time (consider the effects of under and over mixing)
- quality control your scheduled or active manufacturing runs to avoid major losses
If you would like to learn more
Email info@caleva.com
Use our chat function on this page
Complete and submit the form on this page
View our Contact Us page
Leave A Comment