Cleanliness Testing

Contamination removal from components used in automotive, aerospace, hydraulics and production systems is becoming increasingly important as suppliers, producers and end users look for better reliability and longer warranty periods.

Particle Technology can provide either the equipment or the analysis service you require for the determination of the technical cleanliness of your components in accordance with inspection standards ISO16232 / VDA 19

Component Cleanliness Analysis

The component cleanliness testing service primarily uses a flushing/pressure rinse method for the removal of contamination from pipes, injectors, pumps, valves, radiators, engine blocks, cylinder heads, cranksahfts and manifolds. The flushing liquid is drawn through a membrane filter and analysed with a Leica microscope to count particles and weighed to give a gravimetric weight in mg.

The laboratory is equipped with a rinse cabinet capable of rinsing with water based or solvent based media, high accuracy balances and two high accuracy automated microscopes.

All cleanliness equipment is housed within our separate clean area to ensure that contamination is minimised.

The microscope analysis identifies the quantity of particles in different size classes including longest particle and fibres according to the applicable test standards applied. Results are recorded and sent to the customer in a report as per the template below.

The microscope system can categorise particles into reflective and non-reflective to give an indication on the ratio of metallic and non-metallic particles.

For a more in depth analysis of the contamination the particles can be analysed using our XRF microscope – allowing positive identification of particle type and matching to possible sources.