Rheality is a non-destructive sensing technology for in-process rheology measurement. This ground-breaking technology has been developed in response to industry needs, where current rheology measurements are time-consuming, require off-line testing and result in large amounts of wasted product
Rheality is developing the technology for the food & drink, chemical and FMCG manufacturing industries, to provide a cost-effective device that delivers continuous rheological inline measurement.
Currently liquid and paste production lines take samples at regular intervals during production, to ensure quality control of the final product. Should the sample not have the desired properties, the batch needs to be either reworked or worst scrapped – and for example, in the FMCG sector, this is 14% on average of the output of these manufacturing lines.
The technology from Rheality uses an acoustic sensor to ‘listen’ to the fluid in the pipe, and an AI intelligent machine learning algorithm (patent pending) to convert the signal into real-time measurements of rheological properties such as viscosity and flow rates.
The fluid sensor system was co-invented by Dr Federico Alberini, who is an acknowledged expert in rheology measurement and liquid product formulation, and Daniel Hefft, who is post-graduate researcher at the University.
After successful market validation activity through the Midlands ICURe, Rheality is working towards the first trials with its first identified customers, among them the leading consumer goods companies. At the same time, Rheality is working with the investors to deliver a successful custom-made solution through formation of a spin-out. MICRA is playing an important role in Rheality’s success.
