12 Key Considerations While Choosing a Rheometer

8/10/2019 12 Key Considerations While Choosing a Rheometer

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Inform is a series of white papers designed to

provide advice on material characterization issues

12 key considerations

when purchasing a rheometer


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The features of a rheometer and the benefits they confer, together with

the instruments performance specifications, are obvious and important

considerations when purchasing a new system. However, unless you are

an experienced rheometer user, written specifications can be confusing

and in the worst case may even be misleading. It is not uncommon

for an instrument to have the best technical specifications on paper

but still be outperformed by another rheometer with seemingly inferior

capabilities. Some manufacturers are more aggressive than others when

listing specifications, and these are likely to have been provided under

idealized conditions. Such conditions may bear little resemblance to those

needed for characterizing your specific materials. In order to ensure you

are comparing apples with apples it is advisable to discuss instrument

specifications with your vendor.

It is worth considering whether you are really happy for your primary

support to come from a suppliers (perhaps non-expert) sales organization.

Will their priorities be in line with yours? Can you exploit the full potential

of this rheometer based on initial training from a sales representative

someone who may be more used to giving demonstrations to achieve a

sale than to capture research grade data or gain a fundamental, detailed

understanding of the intricacies of the application?

The outdated model of salesperson as jack of all trades was common in

the analytical instrument industry when it was growing rapidly and when

support was much less of an issue. Today there are many thousands

of instruments in industry and academia, and users need and demand

more focused and specialist attention. A company that has expert

personnel, and which delivers professional support through a variety of

different channels, is best placed to help individual customers achieve the

maximum return from their rheometer investment.

Hardware and software features as well as instrument specifications1

Who will provide the support you will need after the sale - for training,

understanding your applications, setting up proper test methods and

recommending test parameters for example?

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How often - as a consumer - have you been led to believe that your pre-

sale experience would be replicated post-sale? And how many times has

this really proved true? It is essential to consider more than simply the pre-

sale experience in your decision-making. Your company will probably use

this equipment for seven to ten years or more, and over that time you are

likely to need interaction with, and support from, many more people thanonly your local sales representative.

This means how safe is your decision to get a product today, and how

will this decision look one, three, five or seven years from now? This is an

often neglected consideration when buying a new piece of equipment -

it is more natural to make a decision based on todays snapshot of the

product. Many of us will have bought a product in a store, only to quickly

find that the technology has moved on and last months new, high-end

gadget is no longer the latest, greatest product on the market.

Often in the consumer market the lifetime of the product we are

purchasing is not expected to be seven, ten or more years. But if you were

spending your own money on a rheometer, wouldnt you be very careful

to ensure that your purchase reflected not only the right decision now, but

also the right decision as far as possible into the future? Manufacturers

often discuss product lifecycles, or the stages a product goes through

during its life - see the graph below for more detail. In order to futureproof your investment in an analytical instrument, and to look out for your

companys best interests, consider which stage the products you are

evaluating have reached.

How future proof will your instrument purchase be? 3

Significantly, the salesperson is no longer seen by most instrument

users as the primary support channel, with most now demanding:

(a) a well-staffed help desk with highly trained advisors to act as a live

initial point of contact

(b) exceptional support made available to customers 24/7 via the web

(c) specialists who spend 100% of their time working on a particular

technology area


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How stable is the company you plan to buy from? How long has it been

around, how established is its team and what is the ownership status of

the company? Is it a small, specialist company, and can it ride out the

ups and downs of the global economy, and weather any storm? Howimportant is it for the vendor to have a worldwide presence, in case your

long- term plan is to roll out this technique as a standard test method to

your various facilities around the world?

Some companies will have a big name through which they can claim a

global presence, but can their specialists in the various countries provide a

dependable level of support to your company, in every location? How likely

is the vendor to provide a consistent, trouble-free experience, pre- and

post sale, when the equipment is used globally?

Clearly an investment of this type involves a large outlay of money and

an implied commitment on the part of both the vendor and customer to

work together over the lifetime of the investment. If you take the view that

purchasing a rheometer truly is an investment and not just a quick impulse

decision, then it is essential to consider not only the purchase price, but

also other costs over the instruments life - support, repair/service, training,

parts, service contracts, accessories, and upgrades, for example.

It pays to be very wary of vendors who appear to offer large discounts

from an initially (often artificially) high instrument price. While their price may

be lower today the concept of Total Cost of Ownership is becoming

an increasingly important subject for senior management in companies

of all sizes. So while a large discount up front is more friendly to todays

capital budget, if you are then subjected to inflated costs on some or all

of the other items over the life of the equipment, you can easily have a

disappointing total cost of ownership (TCO) to explain.

Remember that you are not simply buying a product, you are making a long

term investment in the company you are buying from4

TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) 5


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Think back to when Microsoft first introduced Wizards, or templates for

producing a business letter, fax, email, agenda, or even a Powerpoint

presentation. This was a radical shift in concept - it enabled customers who

knew what end-result they wanted to more easily build the proper protocols

and methodologies. Strangely, very few instrument companies have software

platforms that are as customer-focused as this. So it is good advice to ask

for answers to not only the simple questions like can your unit do this orcan your software do that, but also how quickly your operatives can get

results directly beneficial to your application requirements.

With a properly designed rheometer, you can certainly get the best of

both worlds, without any need for compromise. Gone are the days when

a sophisticated rheometer required a dedicated Ph.D. materials science /

chemical engineering to capture and report high quality data. Also gone is thetime when world class rheologists had to get their graduate students to piece

together custom hardware and electronics in order to generate world class

rheological data. Modern rheometers are designed with both groups in mind,

where the software is quite literally the interface that can ensure even the most

complex tests imaginable are performed simply, and that simply-designed test

protocols can yield complex material properties. Instrument manufacturers

experienced in working in complex and highly regulated global industries

will often have the edge here, bringing to instrument development the deep

knowledge and understanding built from many years designing hardware and

software to meet specific industry needs. They appreciate, for example, that

multiple operators at different locations may need to carry out the same test

protocols, that data consistency is paramount whatever the location and level

of operator skill, and that the instrument needs to guide the user.

This is hard to predict, given the pace of change in business today. Ideally,

the best advice is to remain as flexible as possible in order to cope with

acquisitions, divestitures, expansions, restructuring, and so on. Positivemanagement will always involve looking to the future and preparing for all

reasonable eventualities.

If you are in a frequently changing or unpredictable business environment,

you know that you must be prepared for all that may come your way.

In this scenario you may want to consider the longer term potential for your

instrument, and how flexible the platform design is to cope with your changing

test requirements.

Are you a rheologist, or a chemist simply looking to characterize your

materials in the most effective manner possible?8

Will your sample requirements of today be the same in future? 9


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If they are, then there are even more issues to consider before making a

substantial capital investment. Some approaches to improve the odds of

achieving a significant productivity increase or a positive ROI include:

Remember, you are not simply buying a new product but rather making an

investment in the company who will be supplying it. Be sure that your post

sale experience does not depend on one individual, but involves a team

of people who can help. Competence is key. In this day and age it is less

useful to have someone very close by, but who cant provide the support

you need, than it is to have access to people who can assist quickly, even

if they are further away. Technology has reduced geographic boundaries

and they no longer present truly forward-looking, global companies with

any obstacles to providing world class support.

These issues are fundamental to the way in which many people make

complex buying decisions. Aside from the obvious features/benefits

comparisons, how do you go about weighing these factors (risk vs.

reward and pros vs. cons)? Are you motivated to make the safest, most

conservative decision possible, to lessen the chance of failure? Or, are

you motivated by the upside, trying to get the biggest bang for the

buck, since you want to make the biggest difference you can within your

Is your management asking you to consider how new instrument investments

will (a) increase productivity and/or (b) increase ROI (Return on Investment)?10

Risk vs. reward or pros vs. cons when making a major purchase decision11

- ask the vendor(s) how the buying process typically works before the

sale, and how support will work after the sale (is it based on one or

few individuals, or a team of people)

- ask for a demonstration, perhaps remotely in the early buying stages

(to maximize time efficiency), and live/in person later in the process

- ask the people who do the work every day for their recommendations

- align your long term goals with your purchasing requirements

(dont decide based solely on the better mouse trap)

- be sure the vendor really understands your application and has prior

experience with it

- be upfront with the vendor in terms of your expectations from buying

and using the equipment

- define clearly what needs to be accomplished from the new system

- evaluate the system holistically, rather than focusing on a single attribute


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company or organization? Further, do you find comfort in the follow the

herd mentality, believing there is security in knowing you are not alone and

therefore, to a degree, are safe? Finally, are you sometimes called a rebel

or non-conformist, simply because you do not put great emphasis on what

others do, and are independent thinking and confident enough to make

decisions and live with the consequences?

In any case, you and you alone must answer these questions, even if

you are part of a decision-making team. We hope this guide provokes

your thinking beyond merely buying a product, recognizing that your

organization is looking for the right decision, not necessarily only the best

product. After all, technology today (and rheological instrumentation falls

into this category) is such that products are often separated only by inches

and not the miles of the past, so intelligent capital investment decisions

have to take account of many additional factors.

As if the purchase of a new rheometer were not complex enough, here

are some additional considerations before making that final decision.

By thinking these through, your company/organization will appreciate

that you made the most well-rounded, objective decision possible, thereby

reducing the risks and helping ensure your organization gets the best

possible return from its investment.

Checklist of factors to use when comparing vendors and their instruments 12

- Likelihood that the system performs as promised

- Ease of use

- Amount of time/labor saved by using the system

- Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

- Quality of technical support & customer service

- My importance to the vendor

- Enhanced throughput

- Operator satisfaction with the instrument

- Can the vendor take me to another level with this technology?- Amount of training needed to use properly

- Whether it offers enhanced capabilities/benefits vs. our previous systems

- Level of usage by staff other than the main operator

- Quality and forms of training offered by the vendor

- Ability to help attract new clients, grow revenue, lower costs, etc.


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2010 MRK1152-02

Malvern Instruments Limited

Grovewood Road Malvern Worcestershire UK WR14 1XZ

Telephone:+44 (0)1684 892456 Facsimile:+44 (0)1684 892789

Malvern Instruments Worldwide

Sales and service centres in over 50 countries.

For details visit www.malvern.com/contact

Advanced technology made simple

distributordetails

Malvern Instruments is part of Spectris plc, the

Precision Instrumentation and Controls Company.

All information supplied within is correct at time

of publication, Malvern and the green hills logo

are international Trade Marks owned by Malvern

Instruments Ltd.

We hope you find 12 key

considerations when purchasing

a rheometer useful.

This is one in a series of

publications designed to help

decision makers in your industry

make more informed choices.

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12 Key Considerations While Choosing a Rheometer