Instrument for measuring contact angles: steps from design to commercialization

Abstract

Contact angle measurements are a widely used technique to assess the hydrophobicity, adhesion and surface tension of a solid surface. This work proposes the design of a modular and low-cost measurement instrument.
It describes the changes made to a first model presented at JIT 2019. It includes the design of the constituent parts using Autodesk Inventor 2022, the manufacture of parts utilizing a 3D printer and improvements in the application for the analysis of images from Wolfram Mathematica 12. The result was an economical and versatile instrument with a performance similar to the equipment available on the market.
The work was developed as part of the scientific research support activities carried out at the F.R. Reconquista.