Cleanliness inspection

Perfectly clean, residue-free surfaces are crucial for the quality and safety of many products.

Component surfaces play an important role in the quality and functionality of industrially produced products. In many industries, such as automotive or electronics industry, filmic contaminations – especially organic residues – are critical. This is because many welding, adhesive bonding and coating processes react very sensitively to organic contaminations such as residues of drawing, rolling and cooling lubricants or release agents. They can severely disrupt these important steps in the manufacturing process and, in the worst case, render the product unusable or lead to a safety risk.

Another critical factor is particle contamination. A single particle can lead to failure of an entire component assembly. And for the service life of highly stressed components, technical cleanliness is a decisive criterion.

A high and consistent level of cleanliness is therefore crucial for the quality of modern products in many cases.

100-percent cleanliness inspection: Fluorescence measurement systems seamlessly inspect the cleanliness of surfaces.

Fluorescence measurement systems by Fraunhofer IPM monitor and document surface cleanliness of components –in QA labs, on the shop floor or directly inside production or cleaning equipment. Violet or ultraviolet laser radiation excites the fluorescence of organic residues such as lubricants, anti-corrosion oils, release agents, flux and fingerprints. The detection limit for most organic species is in the range of 1 to 10 milligrams per square meter, which corresponds to a layer thickness of only a few nanometers.

Fluorescence measurement systems for cleanliness inspection by Fraunhofer IPM minimize resources and scrap, reduce equipment downtime and maximize the quality and service life of components and systems. They are thus paving the way for sustainable, data-based cleaning and manufacturing processes.