An adhesion tester is used to test how well a coating adheres to a surface, and it is most common to use a pull-off adhesion tester.
Elcometer offer three different types of pull-off adhesion tester. The original Elcometer 106 adhesion tester, which is a hand operated mechanical gauge. The hydraulic Elcometer 506 adhesion gauge, with a separate, low height actuator and range of skirts for thick and thin substrates. And finally the Elcometer 510 automatic adhesion tester, which is similar in operation to the Elcometer 506 but, rather than manually, automatically applies the increasing force at a predefined and uniform rate, storing all of the results into memory by the simple press of a button.
All pull-off adhesion testers follow the same principle. A properly prepared dolly, or pull stub, is glued to the prepared coating, and, once the glue has fully cured, the dolly is pulled off -perpendicularly (or 90 degrees) from the surface. The resultant tensile pull-off force, together with the dolly diameter, and the conditions of the dolly, are all recorded.
