Patent ID: 7991504

Claim:
A method for determining the extent of cure of binder in a product, the method comprising: heating a sample of the product to vaporize free moisture in the sample and expel vaporized free moisture from the sample; measuring cure moisture content of the product, comprising: heating the sample in a weight-loss analyzer set to a cure moisture temperature set point, wherein heating to the cure moisture temperature set point vaporizes cure moisture in the sample and expels vaporized cure moisture from the sample; measuring weight change of the sample over time in the weight-loss analyzer while heating to the cure moisture temperature set point; and calculating cure moisture content of the sample using the weight change of the sample over time while heating to the cure moisture temperature set point; measuring binder content of the product, comprising: heating the sample in the weight-loss analyzer set to a binder temperature set point, wherein heating to the binder temperature set point vaporizes binder in the sample and expels vaporized binder from the sample; measuring weight change of the sample over time in the weight-loss analyzer while heating to the binder temperature set point; and calculating binder content of the sample using the weight change of the sample over time while heating to the binder temperature set point; and calculating a product ratio of cure moisture content to binder content.