Pull-Off Adhesion Tester

The Elcometer 506 are lightweight, portable, and easy-to-use adhesion testers available in analog or digital gagues and are suitable for measuring the pull-off adhesion of coatings up to 50MPa (7250psi) either on-site or in the laboratory.

Norms:

ASTM D4541, ASTM D7234, AS/NZS 1580.408.5, BS 1881-207,DIN 1048-2, EN 12636, EN 13144, EN 1542,EN 24624,ISO 16276-1, ISO 4624, JIS K 5600-5-7, NF T30-606,NF T30-062

Features:

Powerful

• Suitable for adhesion testing on metal, wood, concrete, and other substrates
• Rugged & lightweight - ideal for frequent testing
• Smooth load application up to 50 MPa (7250 psi)

Flexible

• Easy to use hand-held design
• Ideal for adhesion tests in the laboratory and the field
• 14.2, 20 and 50 mm (0.56, 0.76 & 1.96”) diameter reusable dollies
• Measures adhesion on small, curved, and flat surfaces

Accurate

• Measurement range up to 50 MPa (7250 psi) with an accuracy of ±1% of the full scale

Durable

• Sealed, heavy-duty and impact resistant
• Dust and waterproof equivalent to IP65
• Suitable for use in harsh environments

Testing coatings adhesion on concrete & low bond strength substrates

When testing coatings adhesion on low bond strength substrates such as concrete, wood, or other fibrous materials, a larger surface area of dolly is required to improve accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility.

The Elcometer 506 Concrete Adhesion Tester can be supplied as a kit or with individual 50mm accessory items (skirt, dolly, cutter) which can be added to existing Elcometer 506 gauges.

How to Prevent Adhesive and Cohesive Failures

Preparing the surface and dolly

Select an appropriate test area that is flat and has sufficient test area to attach the adhesion gauge. Abrade the dolly and surface, clean both to remove any dust - minimizing the risk of an ‘adhesive’ failure.

Fixing the dolly

Mix the adhesive correctly and apply a uniform adhesive film over the entire dolly face. Test Standards require that the dolly is pulled off perpendicularly to the test surface. The dolly must therefore be adhered to a prepared flat test surface (see images above). Apply even pressure to the dolly to ensure that the dolly face is parallel to the test surface. Remove any excess adhesive from around the dolly and allow it to fully cure. Tape may be required when applying dollies to vertical surfaces during the curing process. If required, once the dolly has fully cured, score the coating around the dolly using the dolly cutter provided. Attach the gauge actuator to the dolly and begin the test.

Assessment of the Adhesion Test

For a valid pull test, the coating must cover at least 50% of the area of the dolly face. If the glue fails and no coating is present on the dolly, or it covers less than 50% of the dolly face area, the pull-test is invalid and should be repeated. When the coating has failed within the layer leaving the same coating on both the dolly and the test panel it is known as a "cohesive failure". "Adhesive failures" occur when either the coating has failed at the interface with another coating (leaving a coating on the dolly and another coating on the substrate),or when the coating has failed at the substrate (leaving the coating on the dolly and the substrate is bare).

NOTE: If the glue fails at a value above the specification then it can be reported that the adhesion exceeded the specification for this individual test.

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