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Brighton Science Blog
Topic: Bonding & Sealing Processes
How to Bring Reliability to Complex Aspects of Material Engineering
Materials science and engineering influence our lives daily and open the door to new innovations in manufacturing. Each time you wear pair of shoes, scroll on your smart device, use a golf club, you are interacting with a product that was produced using materials, adhesives, and coatings that work...
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How to Master Industrial Adhesion with Scientific Predictability
Manufacturers who produce products with surfaces that require paints, adhesives, or sealants face a challenge in determining the quality and reliability of the final product. The problem is often caused by the fact that most manufacturers don’t have complete control over three critical elements of...
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What to do When Your Contact Angle is out of Spec
Adhesive bonding can be used to create strong, reliable assemblies that perform extraordinarily well in the field. Adhesive bonding is a deceptively sophisticated process that is frequently used in complex manufacturing environments. It is imperative to take a holistic view of each step in a...
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Henkel and Brighton Science Partner to Establish Surface Measurement Standards
Highly engineered products, such as radar, guidance, and communication systems for commercial and defense aerospace applications use highly engineered materials when building products. As a supplier of sophisticated adhesives used in these high-end applications, it is not enough to merely sell...
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Harnessing the Power of Water to Achieve Precise Results
Nature is miraculous. Living entities, be they plants, animals, marine life or humans, can perform an amazing array of complex tasks. As scientists, inventors, and engineers, we take inspiration from any source that provides a good idea. We marvel at how the archerfish uses water to secure their...
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Contact Angle Measurements Can Be Used With Statistical Analysis To Predict Surface Quality
The use of contact angles to measure surface quality has been widely adopted throughout many industries and applications. Your organization, too, has recognized that contact angle measurements provide consistent and objective results in determining whether a surface has been properly prepared for...
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Why You Should Rethink Your Manufacturing Cleaning Process
In manufacturing, a final assembly is only as reliable as its constituent parts and the bonding or joining method used to hold them together, or the coating method used for corrosion protection and/or the final aesthetic touch. In order to guarantee the strength and successful performance of a...
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The Water Break Test as a Surface Measurement Gauge
The water break test is a common way for manufacturers to test the surface cleanliness of metals. Compared to other legacy cleanliness tests, it is relatively simple to perform, however, the results rely almost entirely on the subjective eye of the person performing the test. Hydrophobic...
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Why Knowing Water Contact Angle is Important for Successful Adhesive Performance
Adhesives are an integral part of modern manufacturing, but choosing the right adhesive is only one part of the equation. It’s well known that you won’t get a reliable bond with an adhesive if you just slap the adhesive on to your material without doing anything to prepare that surface. What ISN’T...
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What are Surfactants and How Do They Impact Surface Tension?
In recent articles we’ve discussed what surface tension and surface energy are. Manufacturers need to acquaint themselves with these concepts because controlling surface quality through surface energy measurement of solid materials is the most predictive method of ensuring high performance bonds...
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What is the Difference Between Surface Free Energy and Surface Energy?
When it comes down to it, this is another purely semantic question much like the one we dealt with in another article comparing the terms “surface tension” and “surface energy.” Surface free energy is free energy in a particular space - the surfaces of materials. Free energy, in its most...
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How to Measure Surface Tension
The attractive force of the molecules present at the surface of a liquid towards each other is called the surface tension of that liquid. It may seem like a little thing (and in terms of mass, it doesn’t really get much smaller than the top few molecular layers that make up the surface of a liquid...
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What is the Difference Between Surface Tension and Surface Energy
Using adhesives in manufacturing is becoming increasingly common for building everything from massive machines to everyday tech devices. But companies' reliance on the science of adhesion to make sure their products work perfectly and look marvelous didn’t start there. In the centuries since the...
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Surface Energy Measurement is the Key to Process Control and High Performance
When manufacturing companies take adhesion seriously it can have a remarkable effect on their ability to achieve their business goals. The key is to take a strategic look at adhesion processes early in product development. Glues, epoxies, coatings and other adhesives are coming alongside or...
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Why You Should Use Predictive Data in Building Material Manufacturing
Construction companies and the manufacturers who build the parts and materials that create buildings are relying on adhesives more than ever. When it comes to modern flooring, roofing, siding, windows and wall construction, to make sure the outside stays out and the inside stays warm/cool/dry,...
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How Surface Sensitive Measurements Help Medical Device Manufacturers Avoid Regulatory Bottlenecks
The pathway to zero defect manufacturing through implementation of quality control procedures is found right there in the name. Quality control requires the control of variables to ensure quality outcomes. But it’s the former that is beguiling to quality engineers. The variables in manufacturing...
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Manufacturing Best Practices for Business Continuity Plans
Even though coming to the end of 2020 has not at all meant the end of the impact of Covid-19, manufacturers are pushing forward to make sure 2021 is not marred by the setbacks of this year. This has not been a normal economic downturn and the ways to remain resilient in the past are not enough to...
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Better Consumer Electronics Reliability: Coatings and Adhesives
In a recent study conducted by Instrumental, the top ten most common manufacturing defects were examined. The number one defect that manufacturers fight against is a deficiency in glue. It’s a simple fact that electronic products are relying on adhesive bonding far more than mechanical fasteners in...
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A Great Idea to Help Save the Aerospace Industry
2020 is a year that will live in infamy for many industries. We haven't even seen the full effect of Covid-19 on economies, which inserts a heap of uncertainty into decision making for manufacturers. But one thing is for sure: we're not going to get back to business as usual anytime soon. The ...
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Everything Breaks: What Reliability Means for Adhesively Bonded Products
The seemingly easy and obvious answer to the question implied in the title of this article is: reliability means no failures whatsoever forever and ever, amen. Sadly, it’s not quite so simple. For manufacturing engineers, reliability is an elastic concept that is particular to each and every design.
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Where to Look to Achieve Operational Visibility in Manufacturing
Enterprise manufacturing operations are made up of interlocking, overlapping and critically interdependent processes. Each process in this symbiotic web consists of a series of steps that are only successful when the invisible details are unshrouded and subject to quantitative quality parameters. ...
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Process Control Innovations for Card Manufacturers
We’ve all experienced the disappointing (and kinda embarrassing) moment when we’re at a register trying to buy armfuls of tortilla chips and salsa and the point of sale card reader screams out that an error has occurred. For credit and debit card manufacturers, these are the moments they want to...
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The Best Method of Controlling HMDS Use in Semiconductor Manufacturing
Semiconductors are one of the most fascinating areas of electronics manufacturing. The ability to “grow” almost irreducibly small integrated circuit components on silicon wafers has made an incredible amount of micronization possible. The theory has always been that as the chips got smaller, their...
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How to Control Surface Quality for Bonding Dissimilar Materials
We’ve mentioned many times, in various articles, that bonded material systems are becoming the norm for manufacturers in nearly every industry. In order to make finished products more efficient in terms of weight, to cut material costs, to accommodate more automated processes, to lessen the need of...
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COVID-19 Makes Remote Quality Monitoring Crucial for Manufacturers
Since COVID-19 has reshaped the economic landscape for the foreseeable future and there are many questions about how to safely and effectively respond to it, now is a good time for manufacturers to consider how to make the best of our “new normal” if they haven’t already done so in earnest. In...
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Controlling Parts Washing Methods for Medical Components
Cleanliness is next to production standardization requirements for medical device manufacturers (as the old saying goes). Devices built to be inserted within the human body understandably need to meet the highest cleanliness standards. Companies in this industry have already known what many of us...
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Single vs Multi-fluid Contact Angle Techniques Part 2: Why one fluid is all you need for process control in manufacturing
This is part two of a two-part series explaining the finer points of BTG Labs’ approach to helping companies build reliability into their cleaning and adhesion processes through consultation and implementation of novel inspection equipment. These two articles are based on this technical paper...
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Single vs Multi-fluid Contact Angle Techniques Part 1: Surface energy and the attractions between substances
This is part one of a two-part series explaining the finer points of Brighton Science's approach to helping companies build reliability into their cleaning and adhesion processes through consultation and implementation of novel inspection equipment. These two articles are based on this technical...
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Will New Hand Washing Practices Cause Problems for Manufacturing?
Like many industries during the COVID-19 crisis, manufacturing has had to make big changes including scaling back its workforce, enforcing new and intensified hygiene standards and taking a closer look at workplace cleanliness. Looking ahead to the permanent adjustments we’re all making, it’s...
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Proposed ASTM Standard Will Ease the Pain of Manufacturers
An exciting development is taking place to make surface quality and cleanliness inspection technology more available to all manufacturers. We have collaborated with ASTM International and other stakeholders to craft a revision to a practice to establish a standard use of handheld goniometers in...
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How to Protect Overmolded Connectors for Medical Devices
Protective coverings are part and parcel of our lives these days. For industries reliant upon electronic components and connectors, protective coverings in the form of polymeric overmolding encapsulation need to remain sealed and impervious to the environment. To accomplish this, manufacturers of...
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Study Proves the Surface Analyst is Dependable for Process Control
One of our favorite services we provide to manufacturers is to help optimize surface preparation techniques for their particular materials and products. It’s our specialty and one of our biggest passions. We feel so strongly about it because we know that if you, as a manufacturer, are able to...
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A Summary of Surface Treatment Methods for Manufacturers
One of our many mantras here at Brighton Science is that all manufacturers who bond, coat, seal, paint and print stand a better chance of fully understanding and controlling their manufacturing process when it’s defined as an adhesion process. We believe this because adhesion is quite literally and...
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Cleaning Strategies for Great Adhesion
Cleanliness in manufacturing gains avid devotees all the time. Once the importance of cleanliness is grasped, it’s nearly impossible to think about manufacturing processes without considering the pervasive impact cleanliness has on every aspect and feature of the process. Cleaning as a means to...
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Formed In Place Gasket (FIPG) Reliability Starts with the Surface
Form-in-place-gaskets (FIPG) have been a revolutionary advancement in industries that bank on high-reliability sealing applications. FIPG is a versatile sealing technique that deploys a mostly silicone (they can sometimes be blended with metals like silver, aluminum and nickel for conductivity...
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Conformal Coating Failure Caused by Poor Surface Cleanliness
Electronic components consist of many exposed and delicate pieces that leave them vulnerable. A lot is relying on these fragile parts to function without fail. From implantable medical devices to navigational equipment and from sensor packages in cars to cell phones, the manufacturers of...
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Importance of Adhesion & Composites in Lightweighting Cars
One of the most pressing questions on the minds of manufacturing engineers is how to take a load off. Lightweighting, or shedding pounds on assembled vehicles and machinery, is a critical puzzle in aerospace, marine and, most acutely, in automotive industries. In fact, with the pressure to optimize...
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Is Roughness as Important as Surface Cleanliness to Adhesion?
When the subject of material surfaces comes up among manufacturing engineers the discussion usually centers on the physical attributes of that surface; the surface topography or morphology, or more simply - the surface roughness. Preparing material surfaces for assembly, coating, painting or...
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The Tools & Skills to Address Adhesion Problems in Production
When adhesion issues become apparent in a manufacturing process, they can seem to come out of nowhere. When coatings on circuit boards delaminate and cause shorts; when automotive glass doesn’t properly seal and moisture is let through, or when implantable medical devices aren’t meeting cleanliness...
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The 3 Crucial Elements for High-Performance Adhesion in Manufacturing
Excellent adhesion relies on manufacturer’s ability to understand and control three distinct yet interrelated elements. In manufacturing, adhesive bonding takes many forms but the fundamental principles of adhesion are always the same. Even if the application is metal joint welding, Parylene...
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Fundamentals of Adhesion & Why 3 Molecular Layers Matter
Adhesion is a powerful phenomenon that can hold massive structures together and fuse microscopic compounds. It is also extremely dependent upon delicate and fragile processes to succeed. In manufacturing, adhesive bonding takes many forms but the principles of adhesion are always the same. Even if...
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New Solutions to Address Adhesion Failures in Manufacturing
In order to create predictable adhesion outcomes in manufacturing, precision is key. When thinking about the success of a bonding, printing, coating, sealing, painting or cleaning application, manufacturers need a new perspective. Manufacturers need an approach that considers the entire adhesion...
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Best-practice Surface Preparation Processes for New Products
New Product Development is an essential component to the successful growth of companies who always challenge themselves to improve and innovate. Getting this design stage right is pivotal in that it sets in motion everything the product will be and how well it will perform. Yet, many new products...
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What are the Primary Causes of Chronic Adhesion Failures?
Adhesion problems have a tendency to show up in a manufacturing process and then overstay their welcome. The chronic nature of so many adhesion issues is due to factors that many manufacturing companies are oblivious to. That’s not to fault the manufacturers. Until recently, there hasn’t been a...
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How to Minimize Production Scrap from Adhesion Failures
In manufacturing it is extremely difficult to eliminate all inefficiencies and production deficits. Setbacks that come in the form of scrap rates and rework resulting from product failures before shipping out or recalls and returns after products have gone to market, are par for the course--but...
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Best Approach to Adhesion Failure Root-Cause Analysis
There are a lot of options available to manufacturers who are trying to prevent product failures caused by imperfect adhesion. Many times the plan of attack is to budget adhesion failures into the scrap rate and consider the job done. In other, more dramatic instances, companies will overhaul their...
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Identifying Adhesive Bond Failure Points in Manufacturing
Adhesion processes vary widely across different industries that incorporate bonding, sealing, printing, coating, painting or cleaning into their manufacturing operations. Every adhesion process is constructed differently based upon what the product being manufactured requires. However, all...
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How Surface Quality Devices Can Validate Adhesion Specs
Regulatory specifications in manufacturing exist to ensure that the highest quality, safest and most useful products are created. These are devised internally through research and development testing to meet customer demands and through external regulatory bodies to protect consumers and public...
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How to Transfer a Lab Surface Treatment Process to Production
Production processes don’t just materialize, fully-formed on the manufacturing floor. Procedures and operations go through a full research and development cycle which can take years before they are integrated into the production line. This pre-production work includes strength, reliability, and...
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4 Manufacturing Process Gaps that Create Adhesion Problems
Process gaps emerge in production processes any time manufacturers do not have all the information they need to make decisions that will prevent or solve adhesion problems. Often these gaps are the result of oversights, however, sometimes they can exist and be difficult to detect because they only...
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Can a Surface Science Lab Ensure Adhesion in Manufacturing?
Manufacturers utilize research and design laboratories all the time. To scale new products up to the production line, years of toiling in testing labs is done to ensure that everything goes off without a hitch once production starts. There are some areas crucial to adhesion processes that these R&D...
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Secrets to Predicting Adhesion Failures in Production
When adhesion failure becomes apparent in manufacturing processes it can seem to come out of nowhere. Very often, there is no problem until suddenly there is. It feels unpredictable, unavoidable and like the best solution is to either eat the loss it brings or just hope it goes away as quickly and...
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Why a Surface Quality Inspection Process Ensures Adhesion
Manufacturing processes that involve bonding, coating, sealing, printing, painting, laminating or cleaning need a metric to measure the surface quality of the materials involved. Without such a metric it is impossible to predict whether the adhesion process will be successful or if it's on the path...
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Why an Incoming Cleanliness Spec Ensures Vendor Compliance
Supply chain control is crucial to ensuring that the time, money and labor put into a production process doesn’t go to waste. Managing what comes into the production process has a massive impact on how effective and efficient the production process is ultimately going to be. For companies dealing...
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7 Most Valuable Tips to Ensure Proper Adhesion in Production
Adhesion problems are an insidious concern to manufacturers in any industry with printing, painting, bonding, laminating or coating applications. These problems settle into a production process and they manifest in many different ways. An adhesion issue could look like joint failure, uneven...
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Why a Production Adhesion Process is Essential to Quality
What manufacturers know about the crucial role a successful adhesion process plays in a high-quality production operation and what manufacturers do about this fact can be widely divergent. Every manufacturer who bonds, seals, coats, paints or prints knows that in order to proclaim that a production...
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Expert Guide to Create a Surface Quality Specification
Various industries have different names for ways they change material surfaces during a production process. In medical fields and other industries dealing with high-reliability polymers they’ll refer to the treatment of materials. In automotive and machining sectors the word used is often cleaning....
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Easy Ways to Find Manufacturing Adhesion Failure Sources
When adhesion failure plagues a manufacturing process it can be particularly disruptive. A production process may be humming along just fine and then it suddenly becomes clear that a coating is uneven, or paint is chipping (when it wasn’t before), or joints are weaker than they had been, or film is...
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How to Fix Common Causes of Adhesion Problems
Manufacturers often have a large blind spot when it comes to the causes of adhesion problems. This blind spot makes it impossible to solve these problems and generates frustration and loss rather than productivity and adhesion success. Taking the blinders off and taking on adhesion failure at its...
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10 Most Common Surface Quality Mistakes by Manufacturers
Manufacturers are constantly fighting against adhesion problems. Surfaces not sticking and adhesives not working is the daily reality facing manufacturers looking to make high quality, reliable products. The daunting nature of the task to eliminate adhesion failure seems insurmountable and...
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NASA and UVA Work with Brighton Science (formerly BTG Labs) to Co-Author Spectroscopy Journal Article
Brighton Science's Founder and Chief Scientist, Dr. Giles Dillingham and Research and Development Chemist, Brooke Campbell recently collaborated with NASA scientists and researchers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Virginia on an article published in...
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What Happens if You Don't Continually Monitor Your Adhesion Process?
When a material begins its journey through a manufacturing process it becomes crucial to know and control everything that happens to that material as it makes its way down the line. There are two major factors to consider when understanding and controlling what happens to the surface of that...
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How to Control Your Adhesion Process by Getting to Know Your Critical Control Points
What is a Critical Control Point? A Critical Control Point (CCP) is any point in the manufacturing process where the surface condition of a material has the opportunity to change—intentionally or unintentionally—and impact adhesion, in a positive or negative way.
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When it comes to low water contact angles, the Surface Analyst “means” business
The desktop goniometer is a widely-used and accepted method of obtaining surface energy measurements of materials in the lab setting. For those unfamiliar, the goniometer uses the “profile-view method,” with water contact angle obtained optically as viewed from the side. This method effectively...
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Guaranteeing Anti-fog Coating Application on Automotive Headlights
The competitive nature of the automotive industry requires manufacturers to engineer the ideal product; failures, no matter how small, are unacceptable and can bring heavy consequences.
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Tales from Brighton Science's Materials & Processing Lab
In the Brighton Science Materials and Processing laboratory, magic happens. Or, at least it seems that way. In the lab, our specialists see the unseen. They use expertise, specialized tools and data to reveal the invisible. We’re talking about invisible surface chemistry, of course. “Usually, the...
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Surfactant Detection and 9 Other Surface Measurement "Hacks"
Brighton Science's Surface Analyst is more than just a fast, easy, accurate, hand-held, non-destructive, objective surface cleanliness gauge. It encompasses features to personalize your application for measuring on different parts and for different purposes. Because we work in highly diverse...
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The Role of Brighton Science's (formerly BTG Labs) Surface Analyst in the Development of the F-35 Lightning II
With the exciting release and testing of the F-35 Lightning II, Brighton Science swells with pride over its involvement in the development of this remarkable aircraft. The F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office recently released a booklet of Small Business Success Stories to share the involvement...
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Automotive Applications Series: Polymer Painting and Bonding in Automotive Manufacturing
Polymers are some of the most common base materials used in automotive parts. Polypropelenes, Polyolefins, and ABS plastics are used in dashboards, door panels, bumper fascias, liftgates, sensors, and increasingly exterior doors and fenders. A polymer is a low surface energy material that typically...
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