Development Of An Affordable Curemeter To Monitor Cure Characteristics Of Unsaturated Polyester Resin
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Date
2019-01-01
Authors
Mad Naser, Mohamad Azwan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
The objective of this study was to develop an affordable curemeter equipped
with a real-time monitoring software and assess its potential as a rheological testing
instrument to study the rheological properties and behaviour of thermoset polymer. A
newly fabricated curemeter with an oscillation shearing movement was developed. A
few modifications were made on the original design to suit the current (torque) and
speed sensor systems requirement. Real-time monitoring software was also
developed together with the newly fabricated curemeter as a supporting system to
analyze rheological behaviour of a thermoset polymer. Data generated by the newly
fabricated curemeter system were compared with data obtained from commercial
oscillatory rheometer (Anton Parr model MCR 301). Repeatability test was carried
out to measure the level of reliability of the recorded data by using coefficient of
variance analysis. In order to study the cure characteristics of a thermoset polymer,
evaluation on the effect of hardener content in unsaturated polyester resin was
carried out by using this newly fabricated curemeter. The obtained data trend were
quite reliable and able to match with the data trend generated by the commercial
rheometer. It was found that the newly fabricated curemeter has big potential as a
device to monitor the cure characteristics and rheological behaviour of a thermoset
polymer.