Contact angle measurement equipment

The DataPhysics OCA 20 is a fully automatic image capture system, in addition to contact angle measurements, it can calculate the surface and interfacial tension of liquids by means of a pendant drop method or for high-viscous materials by use of a Lamella method. The main advantage being its relative ease and quickness of operation.

Contact angle measurements are useful for wettability and surface free energy estimations on a range of solid surfaces. These studies are important to a number of industries including painting, printing, adhesive bonding, polymer processing and manufacturing. A commanly used method is the sessile drop technique to study wettability. In addition, advanced and receded contact angles can be measured and the difference between these, the hysteresis, can give an indication of surface chemical heterogeneity and roughness.

Instrument Features

• Measuring methods - Sessile Drop, Advancing & Receding contact angle method, Absorption determination, Pendant Drop method and Lamella method.
• Multiple dispensing arm allowing the use of more than one test liquid. However, typical reference liquids include high purity water and diiodomethane.
• In addition to flat samples the system software incorporates curved baseline determination, allowing the contact angle of a drop to be measured on both convex or concave surfaces.
• Optional liquid temperature controlled chamber, TFC100 for measurements above and below room temperature as well as controlled atmosphere, temperature range -10C to 100C.
• Optional electrical heated high-temperature controlled chamber, TEC400 enabling the measurement and analysis of the surface and interfacial tension for temperatures up to 400C.
• Optional electrical heated high-temperature needle NHD 400 enabling the measurement of small amounts of sample for temperatures up to 400 C by means of drop contour analysis.

Liquid temperature controlled chamber, TFC100. High-temperature controlled chamber, TEC400. high-temperature needle, NHD 400. Software Upgrade to allow Lamella method.