The test required to determine the cleanliness of surface

There are two common and simple test is required to determine the cleanliness of surface are;

WATERBREAK TEST
o Waterbreak test is the test observing whether water is continuously coats the
surface. If the water collects as individual droplets, the surface is not clean. This
phenomenon can easily be observe by wetting the dinner plates that have been
washed to differentiate the cleanness of the plate.
o Some manufacturers simply observe the appearance of water drops; others use
standardized methods. For example, one ASTM method (2) is an atomizer test
where water is sprayed onto a surface to see if the drops coalesce or remain as
discrete drops. The discrete drops could indicate the presence of oily residue. In
another ASTM method (3), a test sheet is pulled vertically from water and the
observer notes whether the water sheets off or remains as drops. Both methods are
in the process of being updated because, while they are non-quantitative, they
have been found useful, perhaps for centuries, in assessing surface cleanliness
.
WIPING TEST
o Metal surfaces are wiped off with tissue paper, filter paper, or white cloth and
check the soiling substance wiped off. Although it's a simple method, this is
effective in detecting some minute particles missed by other tests. In comparing
wet and dry surfaces, it is more likely to detect the minute particles on wet
surfaces. However, the wiping pressure applied is important where relatively high
pressure will be required to detect the substance called "smut' that may exist on
cold rolled steel after an acid pickling process.

WATER BREAK TEST

This test utilizes the hydrophilic surface nature where the surface will retain water when no oil
exists. Since it only involves wetting the sample with water, it is a simple and non-destructive
test used widely. Notes on this test are:
1. Water used is to be clean and cold (warm water should not be used since evaporates
quickly and promotes rusting).
2. The sensitivity of this test will depend on the water film thickness. Thinner the film, the
higher the test sensitivity.
SPRAY PATERN TEST
This test evolved from practices of blowing breath on dirty glass surfaces to determine
the cleanliness, and is performed by spraying cold and clean water in fine mists onto the test
panel. Recommended spraying distance would be approximately 60cm to avoid water
extravasation on the surface. The soiled areas will appear obviously like a map pattern. The
compressed air source used for this test must of course be free of oils, water and dust particles.
After spraying, the test panel will be tilted to remove the excess water as not to cause any drying.
The test requires shorter time for heavily soiled panels and longer time for cleaner panels.
There is an improved version of this test that uses a box with a clear acrylic panel with
grid lines forming 100 squares. The test panel already sprayed with water is placed inside of this
box and view through the grids, and the soil map is traced with felt marker to quantify the
cleanliness as a %. [Fig.1] shows a pattern traced by this method.

ATOMIZER TEST
This test is a evolved version of the spray pattern test. The difference from it that the
evolved version is performed on dry surfaces and dye is added to the water so the pattern will
remain even of the water evaporates. As shown in [Fig.2], distilled water is atomized with
approx. 450mmHg air sprayed on the test panel at approx. 60cm distance. It takes 30~40 seconds
to see where it is soiled and where it is clean.

After spraying, a heat lamp is used to dry the surface to reveal the dyed areas where water
adhered. The atomized water droplets are finer than the conventional spray method, minute
soiling can be detected.

CONTACT ANGLE TEST

When 0.05mL of water is dropped on a clean metal surface, the droplet will form almost
perfectly circle with a flat wave shaped edge, but the droplet will be small and with a nonwave formed edge if there is a thin film of oil on the surface. The droplet will not be circular
if a significant amount of oil soiling exists.
It is said that this method can detect a difference of metal surfaces that are completely clean
versus a surface with 0.01% oil dissolved in a solution.
By utilizing this principle, soiling can be quantified by measuring the contact angle ([Fig.2])
with a drop of water on a cleaned surface.

Concentration
(%)

of

oil

in

solution Contact
(degrees)

0.00

61

0.005

63

0.01

66

0.1

74

0.5

78
[Table 1] Soiling within solution versus contact angle

angle

CONCLUSION
The various methods of cleaning presented above are not a complete and universal recipe, but
give some guidelines in order to optimize a cleaning method for a particular application. Even
the most accurately selected procedure should be tested on the real parts to be cleaned or on a
specimen which is representative of them for shape, size, contamination, and surface
composition. The possibility to clean the parts effectively should be considered, and
implemented from the initial stage of development, design, manufacturing and assembly process,
in order to build cleanable parts.

REFFERENCE
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parts_cleaning
2. http://www.elcometer.com/en/laboratory/surface-cleanliness
3. http://www.dynetesting.com/surface-energy-measurement/dyne-pens/