If your toothpaste comes out of its tube every morning, you can thank a Rheometer

From toothpaste to ink to petrol to beer, Anton Paar can measure the flow and viscosity of these everyday products with the use of their scientific equipment: Automated Micro-Viscometers and the Modular Compact Rheometer.

Anton Paar has been a leading manufacturer and distributor of instruments for over 40 years, but saw a need to branch out and maintain business growth, so the Hertford based Business introduced two new products, the Automated Micro-Viscometers (AMV) and the Modular Compact Rheometer (MCR)."Rheology and viscosity are our new and highly competitive ranges, creating an important position for us in our industry," says Paul Jiggens, Managing Director of Anton Paar.

A two Associate programme with Dr Ying Yang and Cynthia Egwuatu meant giving Anton Paar the ability to research, test and market these bespoke new products. Ying, the first KTP Associate used her scientific knowledge to research the technical applications of the new products. This research proved so valuable that she wrote a paper on the subject of instrument techniques which was published in the Review of Scientific Instruments in 2005. "It is such a big topic and with many authorities already active in this sector I had to be very careful how I write the paper," reports Ying. Her work was also presented at the winter meeting of the British Society of Rheology and is seen as an important contribution to the field.

Dominic Mann, academic supervisor working on this project said Ying's research gave Anton Paar a one-of-a-kind chance to explore new product applications. "Anton Paar was able to explore new areas of application, and it was extremely useful for the company," explains Dominic.

Ying’s research was only the beginning of the effect that the KTP programme was having on the company. A second KTP Associate, Cynthia Eqwuatu, began working at the company to market the new products that Ying has tested. Using a combination of scientific know-how and business savvy Cynthia’s project has seen startling results just half way through her project. Sales have increased steadily and product awareness is growing dramatically. “We want to find new places to use the instruments, but not in a factory chain, the aim is to find new distribution channels and then market our products to them,” explains Cynthia. Cynthia has also organised Anton Paar’s presence at exhibitions, designed new mail shots and sent them to potential customers in new industry sectors and has also sponsored a company open day. “We have seen excellent results in terms of profit and publicity thanks to the enormous push in our marketing efforts.”

“If you have a good product, you need to convince people to buy it. KTP is a good way to pull in a few people that we would not have got otherwise,” praises Paul.