arcotest® GmbHTesting the surface tension & cleanliness of surfaces

The use of a wide variety of materials in industry is constantly increasing. However, not all material surfaces are suitable for processes such as bonding, printing, painting, coating, etc. It is therefore essential to characterise a surface for further processing first. An unsuitable surface always leads to unsatisfactory results in the subsequent process. arcotest GmbH has been a manufacturer of test inks since 1976 and offers a comprehensive range of inks, pens and accessories.

There are various methods to determine the surface tension. A simple, inexpensive and quick method is measurement using test inks and test pens. They are suitable for all plastic, glass, ceramic and metal surfaces. The surface tension is determined by applying the test inks to the surfaces to be evaluated as a line a few centimetres long and observing the behaviour of the ink line.

Test inks & test pens PINK

The PINK test inks are test liquids with a defined surface tension that are coloured pink. They have been specially developed to offer non-toxic test inksThese PINK test inks can be used as a replacement for the BLUE test inks, as the application and handling are adapted to DIN 53364 and ISO 8296.
as the application and handling is based on DIN 53364 and ISO 8296.
respectively. The PINK test inks are available in bottles or in pen form.

Test inks & test pens BLUE

The BLUE test inks are liquids (according to ISO 8296, corresponds to DIN 53364, ASTM 2587, JISK 6768) with a defined surface tension that are coloured blue. The surface tension of the material to be tested is determined by simply applying the test inks. They are available in a range from 18.4 to 105 mN/m surface tension. Available in bottles or in pen form (28 to 72 mN/m).
Colourless: 18, 76, 84, 90 and 105 mN/m.
Toxic from 24 to 57 mN/m.

Test pen QUICKTEST® 38 mN/m

The QUICKTEST 38® can be used to determine whether the pre-treatment of polyolefins (polypropylene, polyethylene, polybutylene) has had an effect. The liquid contained in the pen remains as a continuous line at a surface tension value of around 38mN/m or greater, below this it rolls off. The line applied with QUICKTEST 38® dries in a matter of seconds and no longer needs to be wiped off.

Advantages of the QUICKTEST 38: 

• Easy to use
• Ideal for quick spot checks on polyolefins
• No wiping necessary, permanent display of the test result
• Good readability due to conspicuous red colouring