

Help File for LECalc Polymer Solutions Ester Calculator

Background

This program has been designed on a program I wrote approximately 20 years ago for operation under the DOS PC system. It has been designed for both ease and simplicity of use based on my own needs which should cover the vast majority of the requirements of the resin industry. It may be used for alkyds, modified alkyds, polyesters, unsaturated polyesters and any other esterification type products (such as synthetic lubricants). It can also be used for polyamides but with some reservations.

A single ingredient may be entered multiple times into the formulation as also may blank lines. This allows the formulator to enter a proportion of an ingredient for say the alcoholysis stage, and then a further quantity in the esterification stage. The two stages may be separated by a blank line to demarcate the two processes.

The program should, I hope, be fairly intuitive to use. 

The database used contains three tables and indexes. One table contains the information on the ingredients (raw materials) used in formulating, a second contains the basic formulation information (the product name etc) and the third contains the actual formulation (or recipe) ingredients used. Each table has its own index. The reason for adopting this approach is that your directory will not become cluttered with numerous formulation files. However, as the program is fully integrated with the database, NO ATTEMPT SHOULD BE MADE TO ALTER THE DATABASE WITH ANY THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS!

Getting Started

Different formulations are selected by utilising the two selector boxes Resin Type and Batch Code. These will be blank at first but will contain your formulations once you have begun entering them - such as Long Oil Alkyd (in the Resin Type box) and Trial #1 (in the Batch Code box). The Resin Type box is the master selector and, for each resin type selected in this box, the Batch Code box will indicate all batches under this category.

The easiest way to learn a new program is by example so to begin:

Example

This example is a long oil alkyd and shows multiple techniques to add the raw materials and corresponding values for the recipe  by mass, moles or equivalents.

1. Choose the New Button on the speed bar (or choose File/New from the menu bar). The Add New Recipe Window will appear.

2. Under Resin Type enter Long Oil Alkyds (without quotes). 

3. Press ENTER or TAB or select the New recipe code box with the mouse to move to the Resin code edit box. Enter Example 1 (again without the quotes).

4. Click the OK button with the left mouse key or press ENTER to move to the OK Button and ENTER again. The Add New Recipe window will close and you will be returned to the main screen.

5. On return to the main screen you will find that the values entered for Resin Type and Resin Code in step 2 and 3 above have been filled in the Lookup boxes in addition to default values for the other primary recipe values.

6. The cursor will be placed in the Acid Value edit box and the value (8) will be highlighted. Leave this value as is and either press TAB or ENTER or left click on the % Solids Edit box to move to this edit box. Change the value to 70.00.

7. Use the techniques in step 6 above to change the Description edit box to Standard Long Oil Alkyd.

8. Press TAB or ENTER twice to move to the Code column in the Recipe Grid or simply left click in the Code column.

9. Enter SO (without quotes  note capitalisation) in the column and press TAB. Soya Oil will appear in the Name Column.

10.  Press TAB again to move to the Mass column and enter the value 31.4.

11.  Press TAB again and the values for the other columns will be automatically calculated  this is not a necessary step at this stage though.

12.  Left click with the mouse on the Base radio button in the Material Type selection box on the right hand side. The selection box below will now show only those raw materials in the database that are classified as bases.

13.  Scroll the selection box down (use either the down arrow key or the scroll bar) until Pentaerythritol  Mono is displayed. Click on Pentaerythritol  Mono and it will become highlighted.

14. In the Ingredient box below the selection box click on Add with the left mouse button. Mono pentaerythritol will be added to the recipe below the Soya Oil.

15. Left click in the Eb column on the same row and enter the value 0.215.

16. In the Blank box below the Recipe Grid, left click on Add. 

17. Left click with the mouse on the Acid radio button in the Material Type selection box on the right hand side. The selection box below will now show only those raw materials in the database that are classified as acids.

18. Scroll the selection box down (use either the down arrow key or the scroll bar) until Phthalic Anhydride is displayed. Double-Click on Phthalic Anhydride with the left mouse button Phthalic Anhydride will be added to the Recipe Grid in the blank row created in step 16 (if a raw material already exists in the row, the program will ask for confirmation before overwriting the existing ingredient).

19.  TAB or left click to move to the Moles column and enter the value 0.086.

20. Left click on the Insert in the Blank box and a new empty row will be inserted between the pentaerythritol  mono and phthalic anhydride rows (I use this technique to separate between separate processes  in this case, alcoholysis [Soya + Penta] and esterification.

21. Left click on the Menu button above the raw material selector to hide the raw material selector (the same can be achieved by selecting Options/Selection List from the main menu) and reveal the columns hidden by the selector. Note that the columns in grey (Batch Size, Percentage and Cost) are calculated values and cannot be changed.

22. Finally right click on Save on the speed bar to save the recipe.

Whilst entering the raw materials and values above, you will note that raw materials can be entered in numerous ways as can the values (i.e. by mass, moles or equivalents). Attempting to enter values in a blank row or in an inappropriate column (e.g. the Eb column in a row that has an acid as a raw material) is prevented. In addition, the calculated constants at the base of the screen are updated as one changes the values of the recipe.

Raw Material Library

The raw material library can be viewed by choosing View/Library from the main menu or the Library Button from the speed bar. Entering, editing and otherwise updating raw materials in the library I hope is intuitive.
The only point that has to be stressed is that the recipe grid looks up the various raw material parameters, such as molecular mass, functionality, raw material type via the raw material Code parameter. As such, each raw material must have a code (one can use company existing raw material codes if preferred and it is recommended that users do this) otherwise the raw material selector and recipe grid will not reflect the raw material. Secondly ONCE YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED THE RAW MATERIAL CODES DO NOT CHANGE THEM otherwise again the recipe grid will not truly reflect the raw material as the program will not be able to locate the raw material in existing recipes. On the other hand, any changes to the other raw material parameters are immediately reflected in the recipe.
If one does change the raw material code after having entered recipes that use this particular raw material will need to be manually added.

Standard Keyboard Keys

These should function as normal. TAB moves horizontally across the primary information edit boxes or across the columns in the Recipe Grid. The UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys follow their normal functions, whilst pressing ENTER when in the Recipe Grid moves vertically down the currently selected column.
Speed Bar Buttons

The function of the speed bar buttons from right to left are:

New
As per the example, the New button allows one to enter new recipes into the database. Selecting New will open the Add new recipe dialog box. The Recipe Type can either be typed in or, where a Recipe Type has already been previously entered, one can use the down arrow on the right of the edit box to select an existing type. One then only needs to enter a recipe code.

Save
Use Save to save any changes made to a recipe.

Save As
Use Save As to save the current recipe under a different name. The existing recipe is unaltered.

Rename
Rename allows one to rename the current recipe. The old recipe is deleted.

Delete
Delete deletes the currently viewed recipe.

Print
Print prints the recipe to the default printer.

AutoCalc / Calculate
The program auto calculates the Batch Size, Percentage and Cost recipe columns by default as the ingredient values are changed (in particular the mass column). Clicking on AutoCalc turns off the auto calculation feature, enables the manual calculation button and allows one to transpose the values from the Percentage or Batch Size columns (manually) to the mass column without the program recalculating these columns during the changing of each mass value. Once the changes have been made then either the Calculate button can be pressed or the AutoCalc button can be clicked again to reactivate.

Calculator
Left clicking the Calculator button pops up a standard calculator allowing one to calculate values for use in the grid. Values must be manually transposed from the calculator to the recipe grid.

Library
Brings up the library table allowing one to change or enter new raw materials.

Exit
Exits the program.


Blank Buttons

These buttons add blank rows to the recipe as follows:

Add
Clicking on Add adds a blank line (row) to the end of the recipe.

Insert
Clicking on Insert inserts a blank row before the currently selected row (the currently selected row has an arrow in the left most column).
Row Button

The only button here is Delete which deletes the current line from the recipe.

Ingredient Buttons

The Ingredient buttons modify the recipe as below. Before left clicking one of these buttons please ensure that a raw material (i.e. an ingredient) is selected in the raw material selector.
Otherwise use the Blank buttons to add or insert a blank row and then manually add the raw material by typing the raw material code in the code column or select the Name column and use the down arrow displayed when entering this column to scroll through and select a raw material.

Add
Adds the selected raw material to the end of the recipe.

Insert
Inserts the selected raw material before the raw material currently selected in the recipe grid.

Overwrite
Overwrites the raw material currently selected in the recipe grid with the raw material selected in the raw material selector. The row is recalculated using the current value in the Moles column.

Cancel
Deletes the raw material that was last added, this only works if the row or column has not been changed after having added the raw material. Otherwise use the Delete button in the Row button box.

Main Menu

The Main Menu has facilities that echo the buttons available on the Speed Bar with the exception of Options/StayOnTop which when left clicked keeps the program on the top of the desktop and has been facilitated to allow users to transfer the values obtained from the calculator into, say, a Microsoft Excel worksheet without the resin calculator being repeatedly hidden when a column in the Excel worksheet is selected to enter the data calculated data (i.e. when Excel has focus).

Calculated Values

The values calculated by the resin calculator are based on many sources and should reflect the formulations commonly in use.

Postscript

If you have any problems in the use of this program please do not hesitate to contact me. I cannot, unfortunately provide recipes, whether experimental or commercial, free of charge.

Contact details:
Email: polsol@iafrica.com or polsolsa@yahoo.com
Telephone: 27-21-531-0859
Fax: 27-21-531-1606
Mobile: 27-82-671-6800

I sincerely hope that this program is found to be a valuable aide for your organisation,

Tony Masefield
BSc(ChemHons), PR.Sci.Nat
October, 2006
