The Future of Rheology is Now

The Annual Meeting of The Society of Rheology has become the event of choice for anyone involved in rheological investigation, from academic, industrial and governmental institutions around the world. At the 86th edition in 2014, visitors were all told that “the future could be theirs” and that all they had to do was visit Anton Paar’s booth at the event.

The future of rheology, proudly presented by Anton Paar, comes in the form of the ground-breaking MCR 702 TwinDrive™ rheometer. Simply put, this is the world’s most accurate and versatile rheometer. The key: two synchronous EC motors arranged in a perfectly balanced, highly accurate setup. Based on this TwinDrive™ technology, MCR 702 is the first rheometer ever to precisely cover all possible rheological applications – past, present and future. It can be employed in several test modes, from separate motor-transducer operation all the way to unprecedented counter-oscillation and much more. This truly opens up countless paths for rheological innovation.

To celebrate this new array of possibilities, Anton Paar arranged a draw called ‘The Future Can Be Yours Now’, inviting all attendees at the Society of Rheology meeting to register. The prize: a brand-new MCR 702 TwinDrive™. A big win indeed, at a value of $200,000. The drawing was met with great response, elevating the success of the conference in general, which was already brimming with a record breaking number of attendees, papers and posters.

Professor Kendra Erk, PhD, of Purdue University in Indiana, was asked to draw the lucky winner  and actually drew her own entry form, much to her complete surprise and delight. So Ms Erk, an assistant professor in the School of Materials Engineering, is now the proud owner of an MCR 702 TwinDrive™, a universally applicable rheological tool which will help her go further in doing the scientific work of tomorrow. Professor Erk’s research group is investigating relationships between structure and property in a wide range of soft materials and complex fluids, from hydrogels to surfactant-stabilised emulsions. Having the TwinDrive™ system at her group’s disposal opens up entirely new possibilities regarding microscopical structure analysis, measurements at lowest torques and much more.