Shear Rheometer (high sensivity, strain controlled)
ARES-G2, TA-Instruments
Contact Person: Daniel Zimmermann

ARES rheometer of the latest generation with broad sensitivity range starting from Low viscosity (Water bath) up to polymer melts. The group is owning two devices of this instrument. Including Oven for temperature range from -70 °C to 400 °C). Linear and non-linear regime (FT-Rheology) of material behaviour, FT-Rheology included in standard software.

A wide variety of sample geometries are available, ranging from plate-plate and cone-plate geometries, also special devices for strain rheology and torsion measurements, vane geometry, Cuette geometry and various self-developed geometries, e.g. for dielectric spectroscopy.

Shear Rheometer with highest sensitivity (magnetic bearings)
DHR3, TA Instruments
Contact Person: Christopher Klein

Equipped with magnetic bearing, double optical encoder for the deformation and a force rebalance transducer, the DHR3 offers a minimum detectable torque resolution of about 0.05nNm and a displacement of 2 nrad.
The available Peltier element offers a range of temperatures from 40°C to 200°C.
Also here a great variety of sample geometries is availlable.

Shear Rheometer (stress controlled)
DHR1, TA-Instruments
Contact Person: Zimmermann, Daniel

Rheometer DHR1 for liquids and polymer melts, stress-controlled.
Similar system to the already existing DHR3: Also the DHR1 is extremely sensitive in terms of measurable torque due to its magnetic bearings. Minimum torque is 0.1 nNm, measurements of liquids are therefore no problem for this machine.

Rubber Rheometer
SISV100, Scarabaeus
Contact person: Khabazian, Masood

Rubber tester from Scarabaeus: allows rheological measurements under pressure.
Additionally equipped with FT-Rheology for non-linear characterisation of rubber materials. As we have shown, this allows important information about the interaction between filler and polymer matrix.

Extensional Rheology of fluids
Caber, HAAKE (Thermo Scientific)
Contact Person: Dr. Christopher Klein

Haake Capillary Breakup Extensional Rheometer (CABER) Allows the determination of the extension characteristics of non-newtonian fluids. Modified by our group for additional force detection. Now its is possibible to measure elongation and force simultaneously.

Capillary Rheometer, Cooling & Heating, including PVT measurements
Rheograph 50, Goettfert
Contact Person: Georgantopoulos, Christos

Capillary rheometer (Goettfert) for extremely high shear rates (up to 6 Mill 1/s) and high sensitivity Equipped for PVT-Measurements Temperature from -40 °C to 400 °C, temperature allows also food rheology at realistic conditions.
The relation between pressure, volume and temperature (PVT-Measurements) is an established method for measuring material compressibility under processing conditions, an information necessary for the optimization of cylce times in polymer processing, especially in injection moulding.

Capillary Rheometer with additional spinning equipment
Rheotester 2000, Goettfert
Contact Person: Georgantopoulos, Christos

Capillary rheometer (Goettfert) for extremely high shear rates, equipped with pressure sensors to detect conditions for "shark-skin" and related effects.
Rheotens-extension for the application of elongation shear stress on the polymer sample. Haul Off Extension for stretching after die exit, simliar to spinning of fibers.
Self-developed dies for detection of flow instabilities in the extrusion process.

Solids: Tensile Tests
Universal Testing Machine 10kN, Hegewald & Peschke
Contact Person: Dr. Valerian Hirschberg

Universal tensile testing machine with oven from -70 to 250 °C and a long elongation path suitable also for ductile or entropic elastic polymers Static testing according DIN, dynamic testing with arbitrary waveforms possible or dynamic fatigue testing with large deformation amplitudes (>>1cm).
The instrument can be driven strain or force controlled.

Solids: DMTA (Dynamic Mechanical Temperature Analyser)
Eplexor 150N, Netsch (Gabo)
Contact Person: Daniel Zimmermann

Gabo Explexor: Dynamic mechanical material testing with oscillation strain, offering high forces and high frequencies: Linear and non-linear (FT-Rheology) regime of material answer.
Elongation or pressure possible, serveral sample geometries, so soft (e.g. hydrogels, in pressure) or hard materials (Polymer, in elongation or bending). Detemination of glasstemperature possible (Temperature run, Cantilever geometrie). For analysis of hydrogels a hygromator is included allowing measurments at defined and constant humidity.