Viscosity Adjustment Calculator

Required percent is only computed when temperature-adjusted target viscosity exceeds current viscosity (lines 43-46). The engine subtracts current viscosity from adjusted target to get viscosity that must come from thickener, then solves the power law — that net amount divided by k, raised to one over n (line 46). Higher targets therefore demand more thickener percent before the type maximum cap is applied (line 49).

This calculator applies one fixed 0.025-per-degree correction to every thickener type -- Carbomer, xanthan, HEC, and HPMC all share the same temperature curve here -- even though real rheology modifiers differ in temperature sensitivity, so treat the temperature-adjusted numbers as a starting estimate to confirm on the bench rather than a polymer-specific lab correction.

When the Exceeds Max flag reads 1, this single-thickener power-law model can't reach your target at that polymer's typical maximum use level, so formulators in that spot commonly blend in a second thickener type, pre-thicken with a small addition of a more efficient polymer like Carbomer, or accept the lower Achievable Viscosity this calculator reports -- blended-system behavior isn't modeled here.

Just multiply the gram amount -- Required Percent and Recommended Use Level are solved from viscosity, temperature, and thickener type alone, with no batch-size term in that math, so a percentage validated in a bench trial carries over unchanged to a full production batch; what changes with scale-up is real-world mixing and shear behavior, which this percentage-based model doesn't capture.