The Norcross Corp's M50 viscometer is claimed to be first "truly" in-line viscosity control system.
The flow sensitive nature of many in-line devices requires them to be mounted in a ‘by-pass’ line at points of low flow or turbulence to maintain accuracy. The M50 however, can be mounted directly between ink tank and print station. According to Norcross, this greatly reduces priming ink quantities, with up to five litres being saved per colour, immediately.
In addition to measuring in-line, the system can also be flushed clean with solvent in-line, along with pipework, ink trays, and doctor blade chambers, which is said to speed up change-over times “dramatically”.
The M50 can work in tandem with the new MP2000 programmable controller, which enables printers to display viscosity in any efflux unit. It can also be linked to a central PC.