Articles Archive for August 2012

Hi, this is Debbie again, Technical Specialist for Malvern’s imaging systems.
I always enjoy getting to work on new applications, especially at times where a change in the software allows me to do something I was not able to do before. Traditional manual microscopists often use cross polarized light to improve contrast on birefringent particles. Whilst polarizer accessories have been available with the Morphologi G3 for some time, for manual use, I am delighted that we now have the capability to measure with them automatically. This means we are now able to measures …

Recently, I have heard more and more people talking about protein mobility, what it means and how to measure it. So, I have decided to use this week’s blog as an opportunity to share some of Malvern’s expertise in this area.
Protein mobility, or protein electrophoretic mobility, is essentially the motion of protein molecules under the influence of an electric field that is applied across the fluid that they are dispersed in. The mobility of a protein is directly related to its charge as well as other factors such as electric …

Hello again my name is Anne Virden and I am a technical specialist for diffraction at Malvern. My regular part in Malvern’s webinar program is to present the laser diffraction Masterclass series. The Masterclass is split up into several webinars so that you can choose whichever part of laser diffraction you want to know more about. You can either listen live which gives you the opportunity to ask a question in the Q&A session at the end of each webinar, or you can listen to the recorded version whenever you …

In Mid-July, I posted my first blog as I had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania, Kilimanjaro and attempt a summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Kilimanjaro is a stratovolcano that is comprised of three craters; Shira, Mawenzi, and Kibo.  Uhuru Peak is the tallest point on Kibo’s crater rim topping out at 5895m, making it the tallest point in Africa and the world’s tallest free standing mountain.
There are 6 official trekking routes on Kilimanjaro all different from each other in length, scenery, and difficulty.  The trek I chose was the Machame route …

On the 12th June 2012 Malvern held its first Dispersion Rheology Seminar in Denmark. The 25 attendees heard talks on Rheology Basic Principles and Dispersion stability. The influence of particle size and shape and Zeta potential was also discussed.
A highlight for many of the attendees was practical sessions in the afternoon, where we demonstrated the Kinexus, Mastersizer 3000 and Zetasizer instruments. This was a chance to see the instruments in action measuring customer samples. The feedback from the delegates was very positive and the team is looking forward to running …

Hello, I’m Catherine Egan and responsible for organising events, such as this one, when our UK runners joined French colleague Christophe for the last 10Km of his epic Paris to London run.  In an earlier blog on the Olympic, we were pleased to be sponsoring the ‘Val d’Yvette-Londres 2012 en courant’, a unique 410-kilometres (254 miles) run starting in Paris on 21 July and ending at the Olympic Stadium in London on 30 July.

The company was particularly pleased to be supporting service manager Christophe Lasne whose fundraising for ‘Aide et Action’, a …

It’s Day 4 of the International Congress of Rheology in Portugal and so far it’s been a busy schedule with 11 sessions running in parallel with 2 daily poster sessions sandwiched in between. It is not quite Glastonbury but just like a music festival it can be difficult deciding which talks to attend, such is the choice on offer.
The session topics cover areas such as the rheology of complex fluids including emulsions, foams, polymers, suspensions and surfactants, to give a broad summary, but there are also sessions devoted to particular …

Switching from manual operation to fully automated real-time monitoring and advanced process control
Few years ago Vulcan Materials Company upgraded its cement finishing circuit by installing an Advanced Process Control (APC) solution from Pavilion Technologies, a Rockwell Automation company, and real-time particle size analysis from Malvern Instruments. Together these solutions have transformed operation, highlighting more productive control strategies and delivering major gains, including:

A 15% improvement in one-day strength (although the plant is now targeting a 10% lower Blaine)

A 20% reduction in specific energy consumption, the amount of energy used to mill …

Welcome to a new series on Malvern’s blog site, “Molecules of Note”. Think of this column a little bit like those articles you read in the newspaper supplements of papers such as New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Times of India, China Daily that effuse about great wines, cheeses or other globally revered comestibles. Whether it be through blogs, tweets or good old print media, I don’t think that truly great molecules get enough air-time. Well, all that’s about to change. Read on.
Here’s the first homage to one of …