Whether warmly welcome or an uninvited guest: foam occurs almost everywhere that liquids are in motion. The DFA100 gets to the bottom of foam properties and provides knowledge that makes a contribution to foam generation or foam avoidance. With its conventional and newly developed, meaningful foam decay parameters, a flexible, modular design and intelligent software with repeating and parallel measurement options, the DFA100 is a competent partner in the foam testing laboratory.

Cleansers / Detergents
Depending on the application, foam is either indispensable or unwanted in mechanical cleaning processes. The efficiency of foaming agents and foam stabilizers or defoamers is tested with the DFA100.

Food
Whether permanent edible foam, short-term stable foam in beer and cappuccino or rapid foam generation in sparkling wine – food covers the whole range of foam stability. The DFA100 provides results for short and long foam decay periods.

Process water and wastewater
Foam interferes during pumping and stirring and increases space requirements in tubes and boilers. Analyses with the DFA100 make a contribution to foam reduction.

Biotechnology
Mixtures in bioreactors contain natural surfactants and form unwanted foam. The DFA100 is used for optimizing process control.

Antifoamers / Defoamers
Antifoaming agents are used in printing ink, washing and dishwashing agents – even in leather manufacture. Their effectiveness can be checked with the DFA100.

Body care
Bath additives, shampoo, shaving foam – a particular foaming and stability behavior is expected in each care sector. Measurements with the DFA100 help to achieve the required properties.

Surfactant development
The parameters developed for the DFA100 describe stable and unstable foams according to the same dynamic decay model and can be correlated with characteristics such as the modulus of elasticity. This makes the DFA100 a useful tool in surfactant research.

Fire fighting
Light water – medium-expansion foam – high gas-fraction foam: fire fighting foams for different fields of application vary chiefly in their water content. Drainage time and the liquid fraction can be measured with the DFA100.

Polymer foam
Water content and stability of the liquid starting foam influence the character of the polymer. The results of measurements with the DFA100 help with the material design of the rigid foam.

Flotation
During foam formation particles become concentrated in the foam layer which is then removed – for example during de-inking in the paper recycling process or during ore mining. Effective foaming agents can be found with the DFA100.

Paints and inks
Foam in paints and inks causes coating defects and printing faults. Foam suppression additives can be studied with the DFA100.

During the measurement both foam generation and foam decay are analysed. The curves of both processes are described by a mathematical model with robust statistics.

Foam breakdown takes place in three phases:

I)    Drainage without decay
II)    Decay with simultaneous drainage
III)    Decay after completed drainage 

The patented parameters t_dev and t_tr, which were developed at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, describe the breakdown kinetics and consider drainage and breakdown separately. They describe the foam stability with well-founded scientific parameters and characterize short-lived and stable foams according to the same convincing model.

In addition to t_dev und t_tr, the evaluation provides further conventional foam characteristics with respect to foamability and foam decay.

• New, patented foam parameters t_dev and t_tr
• Decay-time-dependent foam height analogue to Ross-Miles
• Decay half-life value
• Decay time values for 10, 20 and 30 mm (NIBEM method)
• Bikerman index
• Specific volume, foam capacity and foam density