Development of Temperature Control System of Multi-function and All-electric Rheometer

In order to study the nonlinear viscoelasticity of polymer melts at high shear rate, multi-function and all-electric rheometer (MAR) was designed by the authors. Development of temperature control system of MAR is important because rheological behavior of polymer melts is affected by temperature significantly. The design principle of the temperature control system of MAR was studied. According to the temperature upper limit the barrel need to reach, and the power the heating system can offer to maintain the temperature, the suitable type of heating system was determined. Considering the requirement of heater and the measurement error, the suitable type of temperature transducer was determined. The measured values of temperature were compared with the set values of them to evaluate the temperature control error of MAR. The results show that the temperature fluctuation is smaller than +/- 0.4 degrees C in 3.5 minute. Therefore, the temperature control error of MAR is small enough for theological test. And the temperature control stability of MAR is very well.