Looking for unique ways to measure surface energy? Read on to know more about it.
In this article, you will browse some popular surface energy measures that are used throughout the industrial section. Surface energy is an essential indicator of surface contamination and the composition of a polymer surface. Surface energy defines solid surfaces. When printing, gluing, painting or coating on various substrates it is crucial to have high surface energy. The strength of attraction between a material and a coating is identified by the relative surface energy of the materials. The higher the solid’s surface energy relative to the liquid’s surface tension, the better the molecular attraction, it draws the paint, ink or adhesive closer for high bond strength keeping it intact and long-lasting. On the other hand, the lower the solid’s surface energy relative to the liquid’s surface tension the weaker the attractive forces, which will repel the coating. Nowadays, there are many different ways to measure surface energy like the silicon sleeve, contact angle test, and tape test. Here, you shall come to know more about the two basic methods used worldwide to identify the surface energy for various materials.
1)The non-toxic pen Method
The dye test pens are one of the most common, effective, and easy methods to measure the surface energy. This method is also known as corona test pens or Sherman pens. Dye test solutions are used during plasma surface modification, corona surface treatment and flame treatment to find out the surface energy level and cleanliness of a substrate. This practice is common in industries like packaging and converting, automotive, aerospace, medical device manufacturing etc.
Mostly, dye pens are non-toxic pens equipped with a valve tip applicator excluding the drawback of the “Magic Marker” or “Felt Tip Pen” type.
The process to use dye pen for measuring the surface tension of a substrate
Simply draw the dyne test pen across the material surface, the liquid will either form a continuous film on the surface or drawback into droplets. If the fluid remains as a film for more than three seconds, the material will have minimum surface energy in mN/m of that ink value. Or else, if the dyne test liquid draws back into droplets in less than one second, the surface energy of the substrate is lower than that of the liquid value. Thus, to find the exact surface, apply a range of increasing or decreasing values of dyne test pens. For different materials or polymer, the dye level varies.
Generally, Dyne Test Pens are available in a range of values from 30 to 72 Dynes/cm (mN/m) and are supplied in disposable pens. Based on your test needs, you can buy the most suitable dye test kit for you.
The Draw-Down Test Method
Drawdown is popular for its precise and accurate results. Three basic styles are used to identify the exact surface value for the substrate or material using DyeX. Draw-Down is an economical and easy to use method among all. Also, it is simple clean-up with water, alcohol, appropriate solvent and low lint cloth. With the use of such non-abrasive cleaners, metering rods can be used repeatedly.
Process of Draw-Down Test for measuring the surface tension of a substrate
In this method, a substrate sample, which measures 8 1/2 x 11 inches, is clamped to a clipboard. At its top, a single drop of three different level dyne solutions is placed horizontally. Now, a wire wrapped metering rod is placed just above the droplets and pulled down. Notice the film breakdown level, if liquid breaks within the two-second period the tester knows that the treat level of the film. Instead of a metering rod, dye applicator or drawdown platform are also used to evaluate the surface energy or tension relative to various dye level on substrates.
