Brookfield Engineering is an engineering and manufacturing company with headquarters in Middleboro, Massachusetts. Its product line includes laboratory viscometers, rheometers, texture analyzers, and powder flow testers as well as in-line process instrumentation. These instruments are used by research, design, and process control departments. It was suspected of causing one of Massachusetts' most unusual and serious residential toxic-waste contamination problems, and settled the claim by paying relocation and cleanup costs without admitting responsibility.

Company History

The company was established in 1934 by Don Brookfield Sr., who graduated from MIT with a degree in electro-chemical engineering. Brookfield Engineering was a family run business until 1986 when it became an ESOP company. It has been ISO certified since the 1990s.

Brookfield Engineering has dealers in 60 countries and regional offices in the US, UK, Germany, India and China. All manufacturing is located in the US at company headquarters.

Principle of Operation

Brookfield viscometers employ the principle of rotational viscometry - the torque required to turn an object, such as a spindle, in a fluid indicates the viscosity of the fluid. Most Brookfield viscometers move a disk or bob spindle immersed in test fluid through a calibrated spring and the spring deflection measures the viscous drag of the fluid against the spindle. The amount of viscous drag is proportional to the amount of torque required to rotate the spindle, and thus to the viscosity of the fluid.

The rheological properties of a test fluid are measured using the same spindle at different speeds. Proper SOPs note the model, spindle, speed, temperature, time of test, container, and any other sample preparation procedures that may affect the behavior of the fluid.
When developing a new test method, trial and error is often necessary in order to determine the proper spindle and speeds. Successful test methods will deliver a % torque reading between 10 and 100.

Pollution Settlement

In 1998 the Department of Environmental Protection evacuated residents after finding a spike in airborne solvent levels in Stoughton

Stoughton, Massachusetts

Stoughton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 26,962 at the 2010 census. The town is located approximately from Boston, from Providence, and from Cape Cod.-History:...

. Brookfield Engineering was suspected of causing the pollution that led to the evacuation and agreed to pay the relocation and cleanup costs without admitting responsibility. It was called, "one of the state's most unusual and serious problems of residential toxic-waste contamination" by the Boston Globe.

See Also

• Viscosity
  Viscosity
  Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear or tensile stress. In everyday terms , viscosity is "thickness" or "internal friction". Thus, water is "thin", having a lower viscosity, while honey is "thick", having a higher viscosity...
  
  
• Rheology
  Rheology
  Rheology is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in the liquid state, but also as 'soft solids' or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applied force....
  
  
• Viscometers
  Viscometer
  A viscometer is an instrument used to measure the viscosity of a fluid. For liquids with viscosities which vary with flow conditions, an instrument called a rheometer is used...
  
  
• Rheometer
  Rheometer
  A rheometer is a laboratory device used to measure the way in which a liquid, suspension or slurry flows in response to applied forces. It is used for those fluids which cannot be defined by a single value of viscosity and therefore require more parameters to be set and measured than is the case...
  
  
• ASTM International
  ASTM International
  ASTM International, known until 2001 as the American Society for Testing and Materials , is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services...
  
  
• Deutsches Institut für Normung
  Deutsches Institut für Normung
  is the German national organization for standardization and is that country's ISO member body. DIN is a Registered German Association headquartered in Berlin...
  
  
• Food Rheology
  Food rheology
  Food rheology is the study of the rheological properties of food, that is, the consistency and flow of food under tightly specified conditions. The consistency, degree of fluidity, and other mechanical properties are important in understanding how long food can be stored, how stable it will...
  
  
• Mouthfeel
  Mouthfeel
  Mouthfeel is a product's physical and chemical interaction in the mouth, an aspect of food rheology. It is a concept used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as wine-tasting and rheology. It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate, to first bite,...
  
  
• Bulk Density
  Bulk density
  Bulk density is a property of powders, granules and other "divided" solids, especially used in reference to mineral components , chemical substances, ingredients, foodstuff or any other masses of corpuscular or particulate matter. It is defined as the mass of many particles of the material...