Paint

The manufacturing process of paint involves several mixing steps.

Most people don’t give paint much thought. However, paint is more than just a color, it takes a complex chemical process to manufacture paint. The Incipientus in-line rheology system was used in a paint mixing application in conjunction with the Centre for Process Innovation, UK. The Incipientus instrument was capable of measuring variation in rheological parameters of different concentrations of viscosifiers mixed with a base liquid under realistic industrial conditions. During each mixing stage a stable viscosity was reached before continuing to the next stage as data was recorded in real time and continuously. Incipientus technology can now be used for improving the efficiency of the mixing process by reducing the time between stages and thereby operating costs.

Process monitoring

Significant changes in viscosity was observed during the different mixing steps. For the first time important data were obtained from actual tests under realistic industrial conditions during the process, in line and in real time.