JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #132 - January/February 2020 - 13

Better understand your material and process with CellEQ

production as well as the will
for process simulation rises,
we will take the next steps to
generate realistic data for the
first time.
Where is cellEQ today
and what are the main
products you offer?

F. K.:

Demoulding a resin specimen after a reaction analysis

optimised the prototype
technology in order to
indirectly deduce reaction
kinetics from the shrinkage
behaviour.
As there was a growing
industry demand for a possibility to characterise reactive
materials under processing
conditions, we decided to
found cellEQ to take the
laboratory prototype technology to the next level.
This is when we started to
develop a fully-automated
device to analyse the shrinkage and reaction kinetics of
reactive plastics including
crucial parts of their pro-

duction processes, such as
mixing and dosing units (including high-pressure mixing
developments in cooperation
with Cannon Afros and Cannon Deutschland GmbH) or
material storage tanks.
Just as in commercially-available processing equipment,
we basically shrunk down
everything to fit laboratory
requirements and the size of
the actual measurement cell.
With the new cellEQ equipment, there is no longer a
need for manual preparation
steps or lengthy analysis
processes.
And as the understanding
of composite processes
and the chemistry behind

After starting the
development work on the
cellEQ analysis devices in
early 2019, we continuously
optimised the technology
and the machinery behind
it with many own developments. The first analysis
device class CD200 is now
finished and used for material analyses.
Apart from the possibility to
test reactive materials directly on our equipment, we primarily offer the machines for
sale, since we see the biggest
benefit in the flexibility this
offers if the customer has the
material analysis equipment
in his own laboratory.
All the analysis devices are
tailored to the needs and requirements of the customers.
They are modular, meaning
if certain modules are not
needed, e. g. high-pressure
mixing and dosing for testing
prepreg materials or moulding compounds or high
curing pressures for vacuum
infusion materials, they can
be left out or adapted.
This way, we can build
analysis devices for all types
of materials, ranging from
epoxy or PU resin systems
over to SMC/BMC and even
foams, adhesives or coatings.
Our current default device,
the CD200, has an integrated mixing and dosing unit
with mixing pressures up to
200 bar, a measurement cell
temperature up to 200°C and

N°132 January - February 2020

curing pressures up to 200
bar, thus already covering
a wide range of production
processes.
The results of the cellEQ
analysis primarily cover the
shrinkage behaviour and
total shrinkage as well as
reaction kinetics, including
gelation points, reaction
speeds, demoulding times
and so on.
All these material parameters
are measured under realistic
processing conditions, including
different
curing
pressures, isothermal curing
temperatures, dosing parameters, mould materials and
basically all the influencing
factors you can think of
during production.
Apart from the curing
behaviour, we can use our
measurement cell to generate extensive data and carry
out different investigations,
for example the demoulding
forces or thermal expansion
coefficient.
Regarding foam analysis, we
can look at the rising height
over time in the mould or
the resulting pressure of the
foam reaction.
All the specimens can be demoulded after the chemical
reaction for further investigation.
What are the key benefits
of your technology?

F. K.: The main benefit of
our technology is saving our
customers time and money
during their material development and production
processes.
Through the modularity and
customer-specific approach
of our machines, the technology is applicable to various
important steps during production.

/ jec composites magazine

13
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #132 - January/February 2020

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