What is a refractometer used for?

Refractometer is a meter measuring the percentage of dissolved content in liquids by the refraction of light. It has a wide range of applications to meet your needs. So, we will mainly introduce different refractometer uses in this post.

What is brix or brix meaning

Brix is the percentage of dissolved solids in a liquid via its specific gravity. The liquid is like soft drinks, vegetables juices, or fruit juices. And it can show the amount of sugar in a liquid. Brix meaning is the proportion of pure sucrose in 100 grams of sucrose solution at 20℃. 1 degree brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution like degree plato. And the brix value is according to the “refractive index” and “specific gravity”. When light passes through the liquid, you will find that light is bent. The phenomenon is refraction and the index of refraction is refractive index.

Brix uses pure water as the standard point – zero point. When the amount of dissolved solids increases in water, the specific gravity will increase. Meanwhile, the value will rise above zero. Thus, the higher concentration of dissolved sugar in water, the higher brix value. In horticulture, brix can measure dissolved sugar to test the ripeness of fruit. When the fruit is ripe, the brix level of sugars in fruits is high. Thus, this allows farmers to achieve quality control of the fruit for better sales.

What is brix scale

Brix scale indicates the sugar content of each volume of sugar solution by sugar levels. So, various industries use different sugar levels to classify products. For fruits, different brix scales can classify fruits as low, high, and excellent. For wines, dry wines’ brix is less than 5, semi-dry is 4 to 12, semi-sweet is 12 to 45, while sweet is above 45. Likewise, fruit and vegetable juices like grape juice have brix similar to that of fruit.

As a result, sellers can sell products with different brix scales from brix table. Buyers can also buy products according to brix scales to meet their own needs. For example, people who want to lose weight can buy low-sugar foods. But people with a sweet taste can buy high-sugar foods.

After introducing what is brix and brix scale, next we will talk about what is a refractometer, what does a refractometer measure, and what is a refractometer used for.

What is a refractometer

Many people don’t know what a refractometer is. Neither do they know about its working principles and how useful it can be. Simply, refractometers measure solution concentration by means of light refraction. No matter what medium light travels in, it propagates along the extreme path.

For traditional handheld refractometers, you need to drop the liquid on the prism. When light obliquely passes from one medium to another, it deflects at the junction of these two media. Under this circumstance, the angle of incidence is the “critical angle”. And the degree of the critical angle is according to the index of refraction of the two substances. For example, if one uses led light as a light source, and uses air and water as media, deviation will occur when the light enters the water.

The index of refraction is an inherent physical property of every substance. So, with the refractive index of a substance, we can calculate its critical angle. From this result, we can determine the refractive index of another substance. Refractometer is measuring the refractive index to determine the concentrations of different liquids. Traditional handheld refractometers contain a prism, a lens, an eyepiece, and other elements. It is widely used in the catering industry, flavor industry, and others. These refractometers can only complete measurements of refractive index at room temperature.

However, FJD refractometers have automatic temperature compensation or temperature correction system. This enables refractometer measurement at ambient temperature between 5℃ and 45℃. Thus, there is no need to adjust the sample temperature like traditional ones. The ATC refractometer is of great importance to users in areas that are very hot in summer.

What does a refractometer measure

The types of refractometers mainly include laboratory refractometers (abbe refractometers), inline process refractometers, optical refractometers (traditional handheld refractometers), and handheld digital refractometers.

Refractometers measure the refractive index as light passes through a transparent substance. So, it can determine the concentration of any added substances. Different refractometers have different brix ranges and accuracies. Thus, their applications and what they measure may vary from each other. FJD refractometers are handheld digital refractometers measuring almost everything you want. For example, fruit, wine, coffee, honey, maple syrup, etc.

As it can measure maple syrup, we can also call it maple syrup refractometer. Besides, this handheld refractometer can also measure the freezing point of ethylene glycol and propylene glycol coolants. The coolants are mainly applied in solar thermal collector circuits and car cooling systems. Besides, it also works for other systems exposed to freezing temperatures.

What is a refractometer used for or refractometer uses

Refractometer measures the concentrations of solutions. It works by measuring the refractive index of each solution. And it can measure drugs, spices, plastics and so on. Brix refractometer enables quality control of many products with brix measurement. The brix reading is proportional to the dissolved solid content in these solutions. In this way, brix refractometer can measure their concentration.

Brix meter is a helpful instrument to measure the food and beverage industry. And refractometer uses involve many fields. Refractometers can be mainly used to test fruit juices and soft drinks if you want to monitor and control product quality. Besides, refractometers also play an important role in chemical industries. Refractometers can determine the concentrations of oil-based aqueous solutions and heavy chemical products. In addition, it can be also used in the manufacturing of honey, jam, maple syrup, and other products with high sugar content.

In a word, refractometers are widely used in many industries.

For the food and beverage industry, brix meter refractometer can measure the salinity of sauces and the sugar content of fruit juices.

For the chemical production industry, it can ensure the effectiveness of antifreeze and cutting fluids.

As for the brewing industry, it can assess the content of sugar and alcohol in beer and wine during the progress of fermentation.

Moreover, there are still many potential refractometer uses like identifying gemstones. With advanced technology, FJD digital refractometer covers a lot of applications to meet all your needs.