Normalab NMC 460 Automatic Micro Carbon Residue Tester

Automatic micro carbon residue testing for crude, fuel oil and FAME

The NMC 460 is Normalab’s fully automatic micro carbon residue tester. Small glass vials of sample are heated in a nitrogen atmosphere in an oven, the oil evaporates and pyrolyses, and the carbon residue left in each vial is weighed and calculated as a percentage. The result gives an indication of the relative coke-forming tendency of the product, which refiners use to judge residual fuels, crude oils and feedstocks.

Normalab states conformity with ASTM D4530, ISO 10370 and IP 398, in correlation with ASTM D189 and DIN 51551. The leaflet names crude oils, fuel oils, FAME and M-FAME and academic research as applications. The web page gives a routine range of 0.10 to 30 % carbon residue.

Technical specifications

Safety, mass flow control and software

The NMC 460 has an emergency stop button, a safety thermocouple separate from the oven thermocouple, an audible alarm, and a configurable safety shutdown point of 600 °C. It shuts down on a failure or out-of-tolerance nitrogen flow and automatically after 300 minutes. A pressure gauge sits on the front panel and the electronics compartment has forced ventilation.

Nitrogen is controlled by a mass flowmeter, which measures the quantity of gas rather than its volume, so the reading is unaffected by upstream pressure or room temperature. The actual flow is shown during the test as a graph, with tare and offset calibration through the menu. The program is a single fixed program that follows the standard, graphs show temperature, heating power and nitrogen flow, and a deferred weighing function lets a new run start while finished samples cool in a desiccator and their weights are entered afterwards.

Delivery, options and what to confirm

The instrument is supplied with twelve 2 ml vials (ref. 41001), six 16 ml vials (ref. 41002), three holders (large, small and mixed), a lid gripping hook, a cleaning cable, an insulating lid and one pair of high-temperature gloves. Options are 2, 4 and 16 ml vials, the 12-place, 6-place and 7-place vial holders, an analytical balance, the NCAL calibration kit, a keyboard and mouse, and a printer.

Confirm before ordering the vial sizes and holders needed, a balance with suitable readability, a nitrogen supply and regulator that meet the 9 bar upstream limit, and a 230 V supply. Related Normalab testers are listed under liquid analytical systems.

Documents and quotation

The Normalab NMC 460 leaflet is attached. Send the sample types, daily sample numbers and options for a quotation; availability and lead time are confirmed before ordering.