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ramé-hart instrument co. June 2015 Newsletter
 

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Seven People Who Should Buy a ramé-hart Goniometer
It's mind-boggling how many applications there are for our contact angle goniometers. Just the other day I met with a customer whose company makes a portable microcoagulation system that measures blood clotting time.1 The product uses a hydrophilic tape for processing the sample. They plan to use our instrument to optimize the production, storage, and shelf-life of their hydrophilic tapes. Another customer uses our contact angle goniometer to design conjugated polymer surfaces with tunable wetting properties.2 If we had to come up with all of the novel applications where contact angle plays a critical role, we would be an even smaller company. Nonetheless, we'd like to suggest that there are some people out there who should buy our instrument to help them as they redesign and improve their products. Today we suggest seven people who should buy a ramé-hart Contact Angle Goniometer.

1. The people who make garbage cans - in particular the kind used at fast food restaurants, parks, and cafeterias. You know the ones I'm talking about - the ones with the little flapping doors which are always covered with dried up remnants of someone else's lunch from a prior day. You push your garbage through and then snap your hand back quickly to avoid direct contact with the flap for fear that touching it may lead to some rare strain of listeria. Wouldn't it be nice if the people that made these trash receptacles could figure out a way to make the flap door out of a superomniphobic material that could repel ketchup and other condiments?

2. The people who make aluminum alloy wheels. I don't know about you, but it takes me as long to clean my wheels as it does to clean my entire car. How about an oleophobic surface treatment that repels road grime and leaves your wheels looking like you spend an hour every Saturday morning when you really don't?


Front right wheel on my Mustang GT when it's looking good

3. The people who make shoes. Let's face it: on a rainy day, it's only a matter of time before you step in a water puddle. And there's nothing worse than wearing wet shoes all day. Two years ago I coated my Puma Clyde sneakers with the water-repelling NeverWet treatment. There are two problems. The treatment doesn't last forever - re-treatments are necessary to maintain hydrophobic behavior. The other problem is that shoe and sneaker makers are not taking seriously the call to make their shoes more water-repellant while maintaining breathability.


Video showing water roll off my Puma Clyde sneakers which were treated with NeverWet - click above or go to https://youtu.be/dTQll6rpW1Y  

4. The people who make windows. To their credit, some window makers are using contact angle to improve their product. However, they are mostly looking at coatings and treatments to make their glass surfaces more hydrophobic. But by making a surface superhydrophilic - for example, using titanium nanoparticles - additional properties can be achieved such as anti-static, anti-fouling, anti-fogging as well as self-cleaning.

5. The people who make stalls, doors, and curtains for showers. The revelation that shower walls could be made superhydrophobic came to me - of all places - in the shower. A few years ago I happened upon an unusually hydrophobic shower curtain.3 Sadly, the superhydrophobic qualities did not last long and soon it became soap-stained and hydrophilic like the prior shower curtain. I have a friend who spends five minutes a day running the squeegee down the tiles in his shower because his wife makes him do it. If he ends up doing that for fifty years, that translates to over two months of full-time squeegeeing. Think about how much of his life could be freed up by a permanently superhydrophobic shower stall.

6. The people who make kitchenware. Over 3000 years ago the Greeks were making non-stick bread pans. Before I was born Teflon-coated non-stick pans had been invented and were being sold. But we seem to have stalled at cookware. Why not make non-stick bowls, plates, and other glassware, utensils, and cups? It would make clean-up a lot easier and we'd waste a lot less food.

7. The people who make fabrics and clothes. Two years ago we reviewed NeverWet and Hydrobead side-by-side.4 Each is a surface treatment that makes ordinary objects superhydrophobic. One of the most amazing applications is clothing. Non-stick clothing could be a boon to construction workers, outdoors people, military, kitchen workers, my kids who like to play in the mud, and anyone else who gets dirty a lot.

1 See www.accriva.com.
2 See http://www.stevens.edu/ses/nanoelectronics-nanomechatronics-lab/research-projects
3 See http://www.ramehart.com/newsletters/2008-10_news.htm.
4 See http://www.ramehart.com/newsletters/2013-09_news.htm.
5 See https://youtu.be/BvTkefJHfC0 and jump to 3:18.
 

Product Matrix
If you're one of the seven people above, or if you're someone else interested in contact angle and surface characterization, we've got a model for you. To compare our models, visit our Product Matrix on this page: http://www.ramehart.com/goniometer.htm. If you have any questions, or would like to request a quotation, please contact us. We'd be happy to help you make the world a better place.
 

Regards,

Carl Clegg
Director of Sales
Phone 973-448-0305
www.ramehart.com
Contact us


 

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