A new online rotational viscometer

Abstract

The utility model provides a novel online rotational viscometer relates to viscosity measurement technical field, the technical problem of low measurement accuracy caused by rotor support structure friction resistance of rotational viscometer in prior art is solved. The novel online rotational viscometer includes the casing and rotatablely arranged rotor in the casing, its characterized in that, the both ends of the rotation axis of rotor are equipped with sharp end support structure, and the rotor forms the point contact type rotation support with the casing or the support piece arranged in the casing through the sharp end support structure. The utility model improves the point contact support by the traditional surface contact support, greatly reduces the mechanical friction resistance when the rotor rotates, makes the more real reflection of the viscous resistance of fluid, thereby the accuracy and sensitivity of viscosity measurement are improved significantly. The structure is simple, and the reliability is high.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This utility model relates to the field of viscosity measurement technology, and in particular to a novel online rotational viscometer. Background Technology

[0002] Online rotational viscometers are crucial devices in industrial production processes for real-time monitoring of fluid viscosity. The measurement principle of an online rotational viscometer is based on Newton's law of viscosity, calculating viscosity by measuring the resistance torque experienced by a rotor rotating in the fluid. Existing products include a housing containing a rotor. The rotor's rotation measures the viscosity of the corresponding liquid. The rotor in the center of the viscometer is supported by two cylindrical supports, resulting in surface contact and significant mechanical frictional resistance during rotation. This frictional resistance is superimposed on the viscous resistance of the fluid being measured, interfering with the measurement signal and reducing the accuracy and precision of viscosity measurements. This error introduced by friction is particularly significant when measuring low-viscosity fluids, affecting the reliability of the measurement. Utility Model Content

[0003] The purpose of this invention is to provide a novel online rotational viscometer that solves the technical problem of low measurement accuracy caused by high frictional resistance in the rotor support structure of existing rotational viscometers. The various technical effects of the preferred solutions among the many technical solutions provided by this invention are detailed below.

[0004] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides the following technical solution: The present invention provides a novel online rotational viscometer, comprising a housing and a rotor rotatably disposed within the housing. The rotor is characterized in that its rotation axis is provided with pointed support structures at both ends, and the rotor forms point contact rotational support with the housing or a support member disposed within the housing through the pointed support structures.

[0005] Preferably, the tip support structure is a needle-shaped structure or a conical structure.

[0006] Preferably, a groove or concave surface for positioning is provided on the housing or the support member at the position where it contacts the tip support structure.

[0007] Preferably, the inner surface of the groove or the tip of the tip support structure is made of a wear-resistant material.

[0008] Preferably, the wear-resistant material is a synthetic gemstone or a cemented carbide.

[0009] Preferably, the groove is an artificial gemstone bearing embedded in the housing or the support.

[0010] Preferably, the tip of the tip support structure is made of hard alloy.

[0011] Preferably, a permanent magnet is provided inside the rotor, and a magnetic transmission device is provided inside the machine body, wherein the magnetic transmission device drives the permanent magnet to rotate in a non-contact manner.

[0012] The above technical solution adopted in this application has at least the following beneficial effects: By improving the rotor support method from the traditional surface contact to point contact support, this application greatly reduces the mechanical frictional resistance during rotor rotation. This allows the energy consumed by the drive system or the rotational speed reached by the rotor to more accurately reflect the viscous resistance of the fluid, significantly improving the accuracy and sensitivity of viscosity measurement.

[0013] It should be understood that the above general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only, and do not limit this application. Attached Figure Description

[0014] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of this utility model or the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of this utility model. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0015] Figure 1 This is a cross-sectional structural schematic diagram of the novel online rotational viscometer provided in this embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the novel online rotational viscometer provided in this embodiment of the utility model.

[0016] In the diagram: 1. Shell; 2. Rotor; 3. Tip support structure; 4. Permanent magnet; 5. Body. Detailed Implementation

[0017] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of this utility model clearer, the technical solutions of this utility model will be described in detail below. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of this utility model, and not all of them. Based on the embodiments of this utility model, all other implementation methods obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of this utility model.

[0018] This application provides an online rotational viscometer based on point contact support, which aims to significantly reduce mechanical friction through an innovative support structure, thereby improving the accuracy of viscosity measurement. (Refer to...) Figure 1 and Figure 2 , Figure 1This is a cross-sectional structural diagram of an online rotational viscometer provided in an embodiment of this application. Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of this embodiment.

[0019] The online rotational viscometer includes a housing 1 and a rotor 2 rotatably disposed inside the housing 1. The housing 1 defines an internal cavity and has a through hole for communication with the cavity of the liquid to be measured, allowing the liquid to enter the interior of the housing 1. In one embodiment of this application, the housing 1 may be a hollow cylindrical structure, and its material is typically a metal with good corrosion resistance and mechanical strength, such as 304 or 316L stainless steel, to adapt to various industrial fluid environments. At least one end of the housing 1 is typically provided with a flange or threaded interface to facilitate its series or parallel installation in industrial production piping systems for online real-time fluid monitoring.

[0020] The rotor 2 is rotatably disposed within the internal cavity of the housing 1. When the viscometer is operating, the fluid to be measured fills the gap between the rotor 2 and the inner wall of the housing 1. The geometry of the rotor 2 can be designed according to the measurement range and fluid characteristics; for example, it can be a simple cylindrical or disc-shaped structure. In this embodiment, the rotor 2 is preferably cylindrical, and its material is typically non-magnetic or weakly magnetic to avoid interfering with the internal magnetic drive system.

[0021] It should be noted that a core technical feature of this embodiment lies in the support method of the rotor 2. Specifically, pointed support structures 3 are provided at both ends of the rotation axis of the rotor 2. These pointed support structures 3 are key to achieving low-friction rotation. Figure 1 As shown, in this embodiment, the tip support structure 3 can specifically be a needle-like structure. Alternatively, it can be a needle-like tip integrally formed at the center of the upper and lower end faces of the rotor 2 body or subsequently machined. This type of needle-like tip has an extremely small radius of curvature, theoretically forming a geometric point.

[0022] To cooperate with the aforementioned tip support structure 3, support grooves for positioning and support are respectively provided on the inner wall of the housing 1, specifically at the center of its top inner surface and bottom inner surface. The shape of each support groove matches the tip of the tip support structure 3, for example, it can be a tiny conical or hemispherical recess. The rotor 2 contacts the support grooves at the top and bottom of the housing 1 through the tips of the tip support structures 3 at both ends of its rotation axis, thereby forming a point-contact rotational support.

[0023] Understandably, since the contact area of ​​"point contact" is theoretically close to zero, much smaller than the line contact or surface contact formed by the traditional shaft and bushing fit, the mechanical friction torque at its support point is greatly reduced when rotor 2 rotates. This design significantly reduces the proportion of mechanical friction in the total torque required to drive the rotor to rotate, while correspondingly increasing the proportion of fluid viscous resistance, thus allowing the measurement signal to more accurately reflect the viscous characteristics of the fluid.

[0024] To drive the rotor 2 to rotate, this embodiment employs a non-contact driving method. Specifically, a permanent magnet 4 is fixed or encapsulated inside the rotor 2. This permanent magnet 4 can be one or more, arranged in a ring or strip shape. Correspondingly, a magnetic transmission device (not shown in the figures) is provided outside the housing 1. This magnetic transmission device typically includes a rotating magnetic field generator driven by a motor. When the external magnetic transmission device operates, the rotating magnetic field it generates can penetrate the non-magnetic wall of the housing 1 and magnetically couple with the permanent magnet 4 inside the rotor 2, thereby driving the rotor 2 to rotate synchronously in a non-contact manner. The advantage of using a magnetic transmission method is that there is no mechanical contact during the transmission of driving torque, avoiding the additional friction and leakage risks introduced by structures such as drive shaft seals. This complements the point contact support drag reduction concept of this application, jointly serving the ultimate goal of improving measurement accuracy.

[0025] In summary, this embodiment effectively solves the problem of insufficient measurement accuracy caused by high frictional resistance of the support structure in the prior art by setting needle-shaped tip support structures 3 at both ends of the rotor 2 and forming point contact rotational support with the support groove on the housing 1, combined with a non-contact magnetic drive method. It achieves the technical effect of simple structure, controllable cost and high measurement accuracy, and is especially suitable for the accurate measurement of low viscosity fluids.

[0026] In other embodiments of this application, the tip support structures at both ends of the rotor rotation axis can be designed as tapered tips. Correspondingly, a tapered groove that precisely matches the tapered tip is also provided on the housing 1 or support member at the position where it contacts the tapered tip.

[0027] Specifically, the conical tip can be a cone with a specific apex angle, such as a standard cone with an apex angle of 60 degrees or 90 degrees. This conical structure can also theoretically form a point contact at the tip, thereby achieving the same low-friction drag reduction effect as in Example 1.

[0028] Compared to needle-like tips, the combination of a tapered tip and a tapered groove offers unique advantages. When rotor 2 rotates, the interaction of the tapered surfaces provides not only axial support but also excellent radial self-alignment. That is, even with minor radial misalignment during assembly or slight radial disturbances during rotor rotation (e.g., caused by fluid pulsation), the contact force between the tapered surfaces generates a component force that pushes the rotor towards the center, thus ensuring the stability of the rotor's rotation axis. This enhanced stability makes the structure of this embodiment particularly suitable for applications requiring higher speeds or operating environments with some vibration.

[0029] In manufacturing, the process of machining tapered tips and tapered grooves with precise angles is very mature and can be achieved through standard turning or grinding processes, ensuring the precision and consistency of the fit.

[0030] Therefore, this embodiment, by specifying the tip support structure as the combination of a conical tip and a conical groove, not only inherits the low friction advantage of point contact, but also further improves the stability and centering of the rotor rotation, thereby broadening the application scenarios of the viscometer. It can be regarded as an effective improvement and supplement to the basic solution.

[0031] In other embodiments, the tip support structure 3 on the rotor can be reinforced with materials. For example, the tip portion of the rotor tip support structure 3 can be made of a high-hardness, wear-resistant material, typically a cemented carbide (e.g., a tungsten carbide-based alloy), which has extremely high hardness, strength, and wear resistance. A tiny cemented carbide head can be fixed to the end of the rotor shaft by welding, inlaying, or bonding, and then machined into the desired needle or tapered shape.

[0032] The grooves on the housing or support can be reinforced with materials. For example, the inner surface of the support groove can be made of a wear-resistant material. A particularly advantageous solution is to embed a separate wear-resistant bearing in a pre-drilled mounting hole on the housing 1 or support. This wear-resistant bearing is preferably a synthetic jewel bearing. Synthetic jewels, such as synthetic sapphire or synthetic ruby ​​(whose main component is aluminum oxide), have extremely high hardness second only to diamond, an extremely smooth surface, excellent corrosion resistance, and an extremely low coefficient of friction. Such jewel bearings are typically machined into a disc shape with a central recess, and are firmly fixed to the housing or support by interference fit (press-fit) or bonding, the central recess forming the concave surface for supporting the rotor tip.

[0033] In a particularly preferred embodiment of this application, the two methods described above can be combined to achieve optimal wear resistance and low friction. Specifically, the tip of the rotor tip support structure 3 is made of cemented carbide, while the mating support structure uses a wear-resistant bearing made of artificial gemstones embedded in the housing or support. When the cemented carbide tip rotates within the smooth, hard gemstone bearing recess, the coefficient of friction for this friction pair is extremely low, and the wear on both sides is negligible.

[0034] Understandably, this "carbide-to-jewel" support scheme ensures that the geometry and frictional characteristics of the support points remain virtually unchanged after months or even years of continuous operation of the viscometer, thus guaranteeing the long-term stability and reliability of the measurement results and significantly reducing equipment maintenance needs and calibration frequency. This has significant practical implications for industrial process control that demands high reliability.

[0035] Accordingly, this embodiment greatly improves the durability and measurement stability of the device by introducing advanced wear-resistant materials such as hard alloys and artificial gemstones into the key parts of the point contact, making it capable of undertaking demanding industrial online continuous monitoring tasks.

[0036] In some embodiments, the support members can be designed as one or more. In this embodiment, preferably, a support member is fixed at each of the upper and lower ends inside the housing 1. Each support member has a structure at its center for supporting the tip of the rotor 2. This structure can be a support groove directly machined into the support member, or, more preferably, a wear-resistant bearing (e.g., a synthetic jewel bearing) as described in Embodiment 3 is inlaid at the center of the support member.

[0037] During assembly, first fix the lower support member to the bottom area of ​​the housing 1, then place the rotor 2 into the housing 1, ensuring that its lower tip support structure 3 falls into the central groove or bearing of the lower support member. Next, fix the upper support member to the upper area of ​​the housing 1, aligning its central groove or bearing with and supporting the upper tip support structure 3 of the rotor 2. Finally, install the cover of the housing 1. The support member can be fixed to the housing 1 using welding, threaded connections, or snap-fit ​​methods to ensure a stable position.

[0038] This modular support design offers several advantages. Firstly, it significantly simplifies the machining of the housing 1. The housing 1 itself can be a simple standard round tube, eliminating the need for high-precision center hole machining on its end caps, thus reducing manufacturing costs and complexity. All precision machining is concentrated on the smaller, easier-to-machine support component. Secondly, this design enables modular design. The support component and rotor 2 can be integrated into the housing 1 as a separate, pre-assembled and tested core measurement module, improving production efficiency and quality control. Furthermore, this design significantly enhances the maintainability of the device. If the support points wear down due to prolonged use, maintenance personnel only need to replace the relatively inexpensive support component, rather than replacing the entire expensive housing 1, thereby greatly reducing user maintenance costs and downtime.

[0039] In summary, this embodiment replaces the direct support function of the housing by introducing an independent support component, allowing the rotor 2 to form a point-contact rotary support with the support component located within the housing 1 via its tip support structure 3. This design not only achieves low-friction, high-precision measurement but also optimizes the manufacturing process, enables modular assembly, and improves the maintainability of the equipment, thus possessing high application value in engineering practice.

[0040] In this utility model, the terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "example," "specific example," and "some examples," etc., refer to specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described in connection with that embodiment or example, which are included in at least one embodiment or example of this utility model. In this specification, the illustrative expressions of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Moreover, the specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments or examples. Furthermore, without contradiction, those skilled in the art can combine and integrate the different embodiments or examples described in this specification, as well as the features of different embodiments or examples.

[0041] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of this utility model, but the protection scope of this utility model is not limited thereto. Any variations or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in this utility model should be included within the protection scope of this utility model. Therefore, the protection scope of this utility model should be determined by the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A novel online rotational viscometer, comprising a housing and a rotor rotatably disposed within the housing, characterized in that, The rotor has pointed support structures at both ends of its rotation axis, and the rotor forms point contact rotational support with the housing or the support member disposed in the housing through the pointed support structures. A groove or concave surface for positioning is provided on the housing or the support member at the position where it contacts the tip support structure; The groove is an artificial gemstone bearing embedded in the housing or the support member; The rotor is equipped with a permanent magnet, and the machine body is equipped with a magnetic transmission device, which drives the permanent magnet to rotate in a non-contact manner.

2. The novel online rotational viscometer according to claim 1, characterized in that, The tip support structure is a needle-like structure or a conical structure.

3. The novel online rotational viscometer according to claim 1, characterized in that, The inner surface of the groove or the tip of the tip support structure is made of a wear-resistant material.

4. The novel online rotational viscometer according to claim 3, characterized in that, The wear-resistant material is a synthetic gemstone or a hard alloy.

5. The novel online rotational viscometer according to claim 1, characterized in that, The tip of the tip support structure is made of hard alloy.

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