New Software Revolutionises Drop Shape Analysis for Contact Angle Measurement

Krüss will be presenting a completely new image evaluation algorithm for

contact angles in the ADVANCE software at the European Coatings Show 2017 in Nuremberg (Germany) from 4 to 6 April. For analysing wetting and adhesion, the software detects the drop shape and the interface between drop and surface (base line), even in the face of severe interference, which can be caused by extraneous light or shadows, for example. With conventional software, these cases make evaluation difficult, whereas ADVANCE can almost always carry it out automatically, which makes the measurement of contact angles faster. Furthermore, the analysis becomes less dependent on the user, as manual intervention is no longer required.

The effectiveness of the software becomes particularly noticeable with position-dependent wetting measurements, for instance when checking the homogeneity of a coating or cleaning process. In this case, drops are frequently dosed onto a number of sample positions in a rectangular matrix. Therefore, several drops lie on a line between the illumination source and the camera of the contact angle measuring instrument. Previously, drops had to be removed in the course of the measurement to ensure that they did not throw troublesome shadows. The extremely robust image evaluation of ADVANCE makes this step obsolete.

In many applications, such as quality control of glass cleaning processes, very flat drops form as a result of samples with good wettability. This range between 1° and 10°, which was previously technically difficult to measure, is resolved outstandingly well with the new algorithm. ADVANCE is therefore able to detect the smallest inhomogeneities in the course of programmed procedures.

Krüss Managing Director Florian Weser sees the further development of ADVANCE as a milestone in interfacial science. “Over the years, we have worked with a vast number of images which were extremely difficult to evaluate. The achievement is globally unique, and raises the bar for drop shape analysis significantly,” said Weser.

Krüss will be demonstrating the ADVANCE software with different mobile and stationary contact angle measuring instruments at the European Coatings Show 2017 in Hall 5, Stand 5-327.