PCU-200 Series: Laboratory Digital Spiral Viscometer

Laboratory Viscometer

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PCU-200 Series: Laboratory Digital Spiral Viscometer

When speaking of solder paste, one parameter that is often discussed is viscosity. Viscosity is important as a paste that is too thick (high viscosity) may lead to a bad print in the form of an insufficient filet. A paste that is too thin (low viscosity) may lead to the filet slumping. In order to test that a paste has the proper thickness for optimal printing, the paste's viscosity should be checked with an accurate and repeatable viscometer.

It is important to bear in mind that there are basically two components to solder paste viscosity measurement. They are the static viscosity and dynamic viscosity. Static viscosity is the viscosity of the solder paste as it is dispensed off of a tube or syringe onto a screen printer. The dynamic viscosity, on the other hand gives the variation in the thixotropic behavior of the solder paste during the course of the screen printing process. It is important to know the dynamic viscosity of a paste ii order to predict it's printing characteristics.

Dynamic viscosity is gained by adding shear to solder paste. Shear is what the solder paste encounters on a screen printer. By understanding how shear affects solder paste viscosity is critical as its understanding may help to limit printing problems.

The Malcom PC-1TL and PCU-200: Spiral Viscometers by design are able to measure not only the static viscosity of solder paste at low rpm, but it can more importantly measure the dynamic viscosity. This is due to the fact that Malcom applies a true shear force onto the solder paste, simulating the forces that act on the paste on a screen printer. By varying the rpm, one can find the shear sensitivity and thixotropic index of the solder paste, something that could not accurately be done with most other viscometers. Thus with a Malcom viscometer, the user can not only measure batch to batch variation, but can also predict how the solder paste will perform on the screen printer.

FEATURES & BENEFITS

Patented spiral-pump sensor provides quick, easy, repeatable measurements.

Elimination of misprints due to incorrect paste conditions.

Continuous measurement of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids with constant shear rate and shear time.

Automatic control of measurement according to JIS standards (PCU-203,205) regardless of operator skill.

Acquisition of viscosity data for rheological analysis.

Built in dot matrix printer allows logging of acquired measurements.

Fully automatic temperature control of sample.

Satisfies international standards.

Application includes solder pastes, thick film pastes,solder resists,liquid resists, inks, etc.

SPECIFICATIONS

Model number	PCU-201	PCU-203	PCU-205
Measurement range	50 - 10,000 p	50 - 10,000 p	50 - 10,000 p
Automatic measurement		JIS Standard method	JIS plus On-line method