University of Bologna: Printable Sensor Ink by Surface Tension
How a University of Bologna printing lab used the Dropometer to show a sensor ink fell from 70 to about 30 mN/m, into the printable range.
CONTENT HUB
Case Studies
Documented, citable deployments of the Dropometer & Educational Instrument in QC, research and teaching.
Printing Wetting, Ink Adhesion and Film Performance
Ink that beads, smears or lifts in tape tests is often blamed on viscosity when the film's treatment faded or additives bloomed to the surface. Contact angle and surface energy on every roll, beside ink surface tension, show whether the film is ready to print. Used by converters, label and flexible packaging printers, and ink formulators.
Cleanliness, Residue and Contamination Verification
Parts that look clean can still carry silicone, oil, flux or cleaning agent films that ruin coating, bonding and printing. A water contact angle check turns visual cleanliness into a number, so suspect glass, wafers and parts are cleaned again before the next step. Used in semiconductor, glass, medical device and general manufacturing.
University of Manchester: Titanium Implant Wettability
How a dental biomaterials group measured which implant cleaning brushes change titanium wettability, with 25 automated water drops per group.
Method guide
Plating Chemistry Maker: PTFE Slide Mounts at Two R&D Sites
How a plating chemistry maker had PTFE slide mounts made for its harsher chemistries in Europe, then repeated the setup in its US R&D lab.
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Method guide
Fused Silica Maker: Surface Tension and Surface Energy
How a fused silica and quartz R&D site added surface tension and surface energy on one portable instrument.
Method guide
Functional Hydrophobicity, Self-Cleaning and Anti-Soiling
A repellent coating can pass on day one and fail after washing, abrasion or weathering, and a high contact angle alone does not prove water rolls off. Static, receding and sliding angles show whether the surface still repels and sheds water. Used for textiles, solar glass, windshields, insulators, membranes and PFAS free finishes.
University of Utah: Ski Wax Hydrophobicity vs Use Temperature
How a University of Utah polymers lab used the Dropometer to test whether ski glide waxes repel water best at their marketed temperatures.
Method guide
University of Maryland: Antibacterial Crown Coating
How a dental biomaterials group used water contact angle to screen six resin coating formulations for provisional crowns, with 15 measurements per group.
Method guide
University of Alberta: Two Departments, Electrowetting at 3.6 V
Two University of Alberta engineering departments have Dropometers. One measured a water drop under oil going from 133° to 15° at 3.6 V DC.
Method guide
Iowa State University: Coated Fabric Wetting
How a materials science coatings lab measures contact angle and roll off on coated fabric samples in its own lab.
Method guide
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: Plated Coatings
How a Sofia coatings group showed that the least wettable copper coating was not the most corrosion resistant.
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Cornell University: Wetting Checks for Lignin Fiber Mats
How Cornell University's materials research facility added a shared Dropometer, and a fiber lab's water contact angles showed lignin makes PLA mats more water repellent.
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Method guide
University of Toronto: Four Dropometers on Two Campuses
How the University of Toronto put four Dropometers to work on two campuses, in a teaching lab and in published research on leaves and mask fabrics.
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Method guide
Lakehead University: Contact Angle in Membrane Bioreactor Research
How a membrane bioreactor lab measured water contact angle on sludge and membranes while turning pulp mill sludge into biogas.
Method guide
Surfactants, CMC, Emulsions and Foams
Emulsions that separate, foams that collapse, frac fluids that underperform and aged transformer oil all show up first at the interface. Pendant drop surface and interfacial tension, read across a concentration series or over time, find the CMC and rank formulations before long stability trials. Used in personal care, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, and power utilities.
Emory University: Interfacial Tension for Emulsion Physics
How a soft matter physics lab measured its own oil and water interfacial tension, reported in two Soft Matter papers.
Method guide
Pharmaceutical CDMO: Surface Tension for Spray Drying
How a pharmaceutical CDMO measures formulation surface tension in house to see how excipients change it before spray drying.
Method guide
Harvard University: A Shared Tensiometer for Many Labs
How Harvard University's Center for Nanoscale Systems added a Dropometer its users had asked for, supporting seven publications from five labs.
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Method guide
Base Oil Maker: Modular Dropometer on a Research Contract
How a small lubricant base oil maker bought four surface measurements in itemised packages and set them up alone.
Method guide
Hard-to-Measure Parts, Liquids and Sites
Some wetting checks fail because of where or what you measure: a part too large for a benchtop instrument, an acid that attacks needles, or a site that bans networked devices. A portable drop shape setup with the right liquid path measures contact angle and surface tension in these places. Used in aerospace, defense, semiconductor and chemical processing.
Coating and Paint Defects Troubleshooting
Fisheyes, craters, orange peel and peeling powder coat usually trace back to contamination, low surface energy or a coating whose surface tension drifted. Measuring coating surface tension and substrate contact angle before spraying separates these causes from application technique. Used by paint and powder coating lines, coating formulators and finishing shops.
Bonding and Adhesion Reliability
Most bond failures start at the surface: oil, release agent, an oxide layer that drifted, or a plasma or flame treatment that faded. A water contact angle or surface energy check between surface preparation and bonding catches these parts before adhesive and cure time are spent. Used in automotive, aerospace, packaging and medical device assembly.
Battery Wetting and Electrolyte Spreading
Electrolyte that wets the separator slowly or unevenly leaves dry spots, long formation times and weak cells. Surface tension of the electrolyte and contact angle on the real separator and electrode rank formulations and additives before cell builds. Used by battery cell developers, separator makers and electrolyte suppliers.
Functional, Medical and Electronic Coatings
Implants, catheters, circuit boards, plated parts and thin films depend on the outermost layer of their surface, and a faded treatment or residue changes how they perform. Water contact angle and surface free energy, measured with a locked method, catch these changes lot by lot. Used in medical devices, electronics, plating and materials research.
RIBB Nepal: Edible Coatings for Tomatoes
How a research institute in Nepal compares edible coating formulations by surface tension and surface energy on tomato skin.
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Method guide
Universidad Católica de Temuco: Catheter Coatings
How a Chilean university group used the Dropometer in two published studies to show its antimicrobial coatings made silicone catheters more wettable.
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Method guide
Material Wettability, Wicking and Microfluidics
Hydrogels that dry during the reading, rough graphene electrodes, paper channels that leak and chips whose plasma treatment faded all give misleading numbers or failed devices. Contact angle and interfacial tension, measured with a method fixed for the material, catch drift before devices are built. Used in biomaterials, flexible electronics, diagnostics, microfluidics and oil recovery.
More Case Studies
Case studies that span several applications rather than one use case.
UK Thermoelectric Company: Contact Angle and Surface Tension
How a UK thermoelectric company's research team chose one instrument for contact angle and surface tension, and was trained 39 days after ordering.
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University of South Florida: Contact Angle Teaching Labs
How the undergraduate chemistry teaching labs at USF built a student contact angle module around 33 teaching kits designed with Droplet Lab.
Method guide
Zeus: contact angle QC in polymer extrusion
How Zeus moved tubing contact angle checks from a manual goniometer to five Dropometers after its own Gage R&R passed.
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Agriculture Spray, Leaf Wetting and Drift
Spray that bounces off waxy leaves, fine droplets that drift off target, soil that sheds water instead of absorbing it. Surface tension of the spray mix and contact angle on the real leaf or soil rank adjuvants and wetting agents before field trials. Used by agrochemical formulators, adjuvant suppliers and soil science researchers.