This week my host lab received in a RheoSpectris analyzer from Rheolution Inc. It's a rheology machine that uses a laser to perform non-contact measurement by looking at resonant frequencies in specimens. I spent two days receiving hands-on training from company CTO Cédric Schmitt, and I must say I'm quite impressed with the technology. The software is very easy to use, and the tooling allows for a wide variety of specimen sizes and material property ranges. We're also excited to start obtaining data all the way up to 2000 Hz, which is far outside the range of our DMA. I can see this becoming a widely implemented technology very quickly, and I'm excited to be one of the researchers with such early access to it.

My previous experience with this type of analysis is with DMAs and oscillatory rheometers, and there's a few differences that really struck me. First, the test is very fast for a single temperature. There's also very little calibration required. The explanation I received is that since the machine is measuring of both the specimen and tooling during operation through the same detection system, the calculations are all done based on the difference and therefore any offset is cancelled out of the math. Not needing to re-calibrate every time I change the tooling geometry is very exciting.

I'm quite excited to continue using the equipment for testing, and to be responsible for the future training and certification of additional users.