Instant Adhesive Measurement: The Instruments You Need

Paint, powder coatings, films, glue and adhesive, tape, and more.

These coatings all rely on a certain level of adhesion to last. Without the proper adhesion, paint chips, blisters, or flakes away, glues and other adhesives fail, and films peel away. 

When it comes to the creation of products that require adhesion, engineers execute a great deal of testing to ensure a quality product. The Kett team is proud to supply these engineers with instant adhesive measurement instruments to test and evaluate adhesion, helping to make goods that last.

Here’s what you need to know about adhesive measurement and the instruments that make it happen.

About Adhesion Testing

Adhesion testing is a wholly necessary part of the development of many new products. It assesses a coating and how resistant it is to separate from a substrate, especially when under the pull of a perpendicular tensile force. Without proper adhesion, coatings may lose their strength and peel away from their substrates, which include surfaces like:

• Metal
• Plastic
• Concrete
• Wood
• Glass

These coatings, also often finishes or linings may vary, but include things like:

• Paint films
• Powder coatings
• Ceramics
• Epoxies
• Laminates
• Lacquers
• Thermoplastic resins and specialty resins
• Glass, zinc, lead, and other inorganics

Adhesion testing is often performed for quality control and to ascertain whether a product meets industry standards and customer expectations. Manufacturers test their products to ensure they are of high quality; that they are made to last, and depending on the material they are testing and its intended use, the adhesion strength needs may vary. 

Adhesion failures can result in exorbitant costs for manufacturers and consumers alike. Since adhesive strength is important for everything from commonly-used, small consumer products to large construction materials, having a reliable testing instrument to measure adhesion is critical to a product’s final success in a range of fields.

One real-life example of the necessity of adhesion strength testing? For several years, a popular minivan struggled with paint blistering and bubbling in the heat and direct sun (and perhaps also due to exposure to road salt in northern regions), attributed by some to the adhesion strength of the primer. 

Paint and primer would start to flake off some vehicles in a matter of just a few months, leading to rust spots and an undesirable finish. This auto manufacturer could have avoided damage to their reputation and financial loss from warranty claims with more thorough environmental adhesion testing with the proper instruments. 

Use Cases for Instant Adhesion Measurement Instruments

Kett has created an entire line of instruments to evaluate the friction, wear, peel, and adhesion of various paints, plating, and other coatings.   This extensive collection includes the Continuous Loading Friction Surface Tester and the Continuous Loading Scratching Intensity Tester. These tribological solutions are designed to help engineers and manufacturers assess adhesion levels and refine their products to ensure proper adhesion—and to avoid issues like blistering and bubbling paint on a car’s exterior. 

These adhesion measurement tools are designed to continuously monitor adhesion levels over a variety of load weights with highly reproducible results, and can cover a wide range of use cases, including:

• Testing the interface adhesion between engine parts and their thermal resistant coatings to evaluate the lifespan of thermal insulator coatings for engines.
• Evaluating the interface adhesion between a plastic card and a magnetic material; testing the durability of a magnetic card like a credit card or key access card.
• Assessing the adhesive coating materials and plating on the surface of a cell phone screen or case.
• Tracking the adhesion on wristwatches and looking for chips or other issues with a watch’s plating or various liquid coating materials.
• Testing the adhesion strength of a silk screen printing unit.
• Measuring the strength and adhesive force of wallpaper and wallpaper adhesive.
• Measuring the adhesive force, stickiness, and peel force of different kinds of tape.
• Evaluating the scratch, wear, and adhesive strength of liquid coating materials, paint, and plating.
• Determining the adhesion strength of various films.
• Testing the interface adhesion of coating films.

During testing, the software created for Kett’s line of accurate, reliable adhesion measurement instruments record the frictional resistive force between a test sample and the test pin with continuous loading for constant test results. These instruments can also test the peeling resistance of products like tapes and adhesives.

How do these instruments work? They test the adhesiveness of the product; the vertical load of the test sample at the moment when a film is peeled away from its substrate. 

High-Quality Testing For High-Quality Results

At Kett, we know the instruments we provide for our customers have a direct correlation with their overall quality. That’s why we take great care to engineer only the highest-caliber instruments, including our adhesion measurement tools. 

For decades, we’ve focused on offering accurate, reliable instruments that not only last; they also deliver the repeatable results our customers need to do their job well. We’re a trusted name because we’ve earned our reputation with test instruments and results that speak for themselves. Are you ready to learn more about how we can help you? Connect with our team of experienced engineers today!