ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the operating principles and basis for both general classes of instruments. The capillary tube viscometer is one of the simplest and most widely used instruments for rheological characterization. The cone-and-plate viscometer is a widely used instrument for shear flow rheological properties studies. The device can be used to measure both viscosity and normal stresses. The Mooney viscometer consists of a rotating disk in a cylindrical cavity. This instrument has become the standard quality control instrument of the rubber industry. A slit rheometer is an instrument analogous to the capillary viscometer. The primary difference between the devices is the orifice cross section. The melt indexer is widely accepted as a standard quality control instrument in the plastics industry. The electronic instrumentation measures the differences between photodetector H1 and H2 and calculates the object thickness to an accuracy of 0.2% of full scale.
