Right to the limit
- Slag on graphite at approx. 1680°C
- Reduction in the interfacial tension water/formamide at 5 bar after the addition of formic acid
(Illustrations: Eurotechnica)
- Reduction in surface tension by dissolved gases
(Illustrations: Eurotechnica)
KRÜSS instruments for demanding measuring tasks
Tensiometry under extreme process conditions places high demands on the instrument constructors. Interfacial tension between water and oil under deposit pressure, wetting of molten metals in blast furnaces, measurements on a single hair or an aircraft wing: even for such difficult tasks KRÜSS can offer solutions from its range of optical measuring instruments.
Extreme heat
Contact angles at up to 1750 °C (standard version) under a protective gas atmosphere - the DSA HT is prepared for such conditions. The optical standard components for KRÜSS contact angle instruments are combined with a high-temperature furnace. This special instrument is primarily used in metallurgy.
Extreme pressure
There is a very wide range of applications for the high and low-pressure module that has been produced in cooperation with Eurotechnica GmbH. Interfacial processes in low-temperature technology, petrochemistry or in large-scale chemical syntheses can be investigated at laboratory scale at pressures between 1 mbar to 690 bar (10 000 PSI) and temperatures between
-20 and 200°C by using pendant drops, sessile drops or bubbles.
Extreme samples
The samples themselves are not always of laboratory bench size. For microscale work KRÜSS offers the DSA100M, with which contact angle measurements can be carried out on minute samples. The precise picoliter dosing and microscope optics allow wetting tests on surfaces such as hairs or the printing heads of inkjet printers.
For the other extreme in size KRÜSS can offer mobile measuring heads. The latest model is MobileDrop, the elder and larger brother GH100 cannot only be moved across the sample by hand, but also by using a gantry system.
- Everything for both large and small samples; left: GH100 with gantry system; right: measurements on a printer head using DSA100M
Stamping aid for Washburn
In the Washburn method the sample preparation process is primarily responsible for the quality of the results. The powder must always have an identical packing density in order to be able to measure powder contact angles reproducibly or to determine the surface free energy by using different liquids.
This work is made considerably easier by using a stamping volumeter. Although this is really an instrument for measuring the powder volume before and after stamping, the version that has been adapted by KRÜSS is used for quite a different purpose: up to six tubes are subjected to the same uniform motion in the sample holder. Thanks to the defined stroke and number of stamping cycles the conditions for packing the tubes are kept constant.
- The Volumeter TO10 is now available from KRÜSS