Density meter applications

A comprehensive quality assurance covering the entire pro duction process is a must in any industrial sector. Density measurements are frequently used for this purpose, especially in the pharmaceutical, chemical, petrochemical as well as the food and beverage industry. They allow the manufacturer to analyse raw materials, semi-finished and finished products as well as the manufacturing steps in terms of a number of factors.

Density can be used to identify substances, to determine their quality or purity and to measure their concentration in binary or quasi-binary mixtures. Substance conversions and reaction dynamics can also be inferred from it. In combination with other methods such as refractometry that measures the refractive index of substances, the density measurement allows you to make precise statements about the quality of each step of the production process. This requires that the measured samples are kept at an exact temperature as the density depends strongly on the temperature. A change by 0.1 °C would mean a de viation of the measurement value between 0.0001 and 0.0003 g/cm³.

However, reliable measurement results are not enough in today’s general economic conditions. The ever increasing cost and efficiency pressure calls for density measurement solutions that can be easily integrated into any production process, manage with very little sample volumes and deliver fast results. Of the three density measurement methods used nowadays – the areometric, pycnometric and oscillating U-tube method –, the latter method best meets these requirements.