ARES-LS1 Strain Controlled Rheometer

TA Instruments ARES rheometer is a controlled strain rheometer, which employs a torque transducer to measure the stress independently of the applied deformation. By separating the transducer, the motor inertia is decoupled from the torque measurement and hence one can perform precise viscosity independent oscillatory measurements. This decoupling also makes ARES an excellent rheometer to measure normal forces.

Our lab has an ARES-LS1 (2006) model, which is equipped with a low shear (LS), sapphire “jeweled” air bearings and a Force Rebalance Transducer (FRT). ARES-LS1 is suitable for low viscosity fluids like polymer solutions, colloidal dispersions, protein solutions etc. ARES-LS1 comes with a 1KFRTN1 force rebalance transducer, which is subdivided in to transducer-1 (20 FRT) and transducer-2 (1K FRT). Transducer-1 is more sensitive and is suitable for low viscous samples whereas transducer-2 is meant for high viscous solutions. Both transducers can be manually set before the measurement or they can be adjusted to an automatic mode. In the automatic mode, depending on the viscosity/elasticity of the sample the rheometer software chooses the desired transducer.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRANSDUCERS:

Transducer:                      1                                2
Description:                   20 FRT                 1k FRT
Max. Torque:                  20 g.cm                1000 g.cm
Min. Torque:                  0.004 g.cm          1 g.cm
Max. Normal Force:         2000 g               2000 g
Min. Normal Force:              2g                    2g

GENERAL TECHNICAL DATA

Transducer: 1
Description: 20 FRT
Max. Torque: 20 g.cm
Min. Torque: 0.004 g.cm
Max. Normal Force: 2000 g
Min. Normal Force: 2g

ACCESSORIES

We have both the water well as Peltier temperature control options. The following accessories/geometries are also included with the rheometer.

Parallel - Plate
Diameter = 50 nm

Cone - Plate
Diameter = 50 nm; cone angle = 0.04 rad

Couette
Diameter of the cup = 34 mm
Diameter of the cylinder = 32 mm
Length of the cylinder = 33.34 mm

Following tests can be performed with ARES-LS1

TYPE OF TESTS

Transient mode:
Stress relaxation test
Step rate test
Thixotropy loop test
Steady step rate temperature ramp test

Steady mode:
Steady rate sweep test
Steady single point test

Dynamic mode:
Dynamic frequency sweep test
Dynamic temperature sweep test
Frequency/temperature sweep test
Dynamic strain sweep test
Dynamic time sweep test
Dynamic temperature ramp test

Waveform and data sampling:
We also have a waveform and fast data sampling option with this ARES rheometer. This option consists of the National Instruments DAQ-Pad 6020E, BNC cables, BNC shorting plugs, a universal power supply and the associated software. Using this option one can get the raw data directly from the rheometer.