In all coating applications, a liquid film displaces air in contact with a dry solid substrate. At a low substrate speed a thin uniform wetting line is formed on the substrates surface, but at a high speed the wetting line becomes segmented and unsteady as air becomes entrained between the substrate and the liquid. These air bubbles affect the quality of the coated product and any means to postpone this at higher speeds without changing the specifications of the coating liquid is desirable. This research assesses the validity of a theoretically based concept developed by Blake and Rushack [1] and exploited by Cohu and Benkreira [2] for dip coating. The concept suggests that angling the wetting line by an angle ß would increase the speed at which air is entrained by a factor 1/cos ß. In practice, if achieved this is a significant increase that would result in more economical operation. This concept was tested in a fast coating operation that of curtain coating which is already enhanced by what is known as hydrodynamic assistance [2]. Here we are effectively checking an additional assistance to wetting. The work, performed on a purposed built curtain coater and a rotating die, with a range of fluids showed the concept to hold but provided the data are processed in a way that separate the effect of curtain impingement from the slanting of the wetting line.

Yes / This study examines experimentally and for the first time the effect of reduced air pressure on dynamic wetting. The purpose is to assess the role of air viscosity on dynamic wetting failure which hitherto has been speculated on but not measured. In this paper we used dip coating as the model experimental flow and report data on air entrainment velocity Vae we measured with a series of silicone oils in a range of viscosities in a vacuum chamber where the pressure can be reduced from atmospheric down to a few mbar when the mean molecular free path of air is large and air ceases to have a viscosity. To complement earlier work, we carried out the experiments with a range of substrates of varying roughness. The substrates were chosen so that for each one, their two sides differ in roughness. This enables simultaneous comparative observation of their wetting performance and reduces the experimental error in assessing the role of roughness. The data presented here capture the effects of viscosity, roughness and air pressure but the important result of this study is that Vae can be increased considerably (exponentially) when the pressure is reduced with the suggestion that Vae approaches infinity as pressure approaches zero. In other words, the role of the surrounding air viscosity is important in dynamic wetting. The data from this study have significant implication to the fundamental understanding of dynamic wetting. Indeed they form the missing data link to fully understand this phenomenon. The data presented in this work also confirm the complex role of roughness, in that it can increase or decrease the air entrainment speed depending on the value on the viscosity of the coating solution. The results presented in this paper are very useful in practice as they imply that if one chooses carefully roughness one can coat viscous formulation at unexpectedly very high speeds with a moderate vacuum (50 mbar typically).

Yes / The coating flow examined here, labelled angled dip coating, is that where a substrate enters a pool of liquid forming an angle ß with the vertical so that it intersects the liquid along a wetting line which is not perpendicular to the direction of its motion. This flow situation is distinctly different from that where the substrate, inclined in the other dimension by the so-called angle of entry ¿, intersects the liquid surface perpendicularly to its motion. Experiments were carried out with various liquids to determine the effect of ß on the substrate velocity at which air is entrained into the liquid. It was observed that as this angle departs from zero, air entrainment is delayed to higher speeds. The data show that the speed which is relevant to air entrainment is not the velocity of the substrate itself but its component normal to the wetting line. This result has important practical implications and suggests that this fundamental principle is also applicable to other coating flows.

Yes / This study assesses experimentally the role of gas viscosity in controlling the minimum film thickness in slot coating in both the slot over roll and tensioned web modes. The minimum film thickness here is defined with respect to the onset of air entrainment rather than rivulets, the reason being that rivulets are an extreme form of instabilities occurring at much higher speeds. The gas viscosity effects are simulated experimentally by encasing the coaters in a sealed gas chamber in which various gases can be admitted. An appropriate choice of two gases was used to compare performances: air at atmospheric pressure and helium at sub-ambient pressure (25mbar), which we establish has a significantly lower “thin film” viscosity than atmospheric air. A capacitance sensor was used to continuously measure the film thickness on the web, which was ramped up in speed at a fixed acceleration whilst visualizations of the film stability were recorded through a viewing port in the chamber. The data collected show clearly that by coating in rarefied helium rather that atmospheric air we can reduce the minimum film thickness or air/gas entrainment low-flow limit. We attribute this widening of the stable coating window to the enhancement of dynamic wetting that results when the thin film gas viscosity is reduced. These results have evident practical significance for slot coating, the coating method of choice in many new technological applications, but it is their fundamental merit which is new and one that should be followed with further data and theoretical underpinning.

No / This study assesses experimentally the role of gas dissolution in gas entrainment which hitherto has been speculated on but not measured. In this paper, we used dip coating as the model experimental flow and performed the experiments with a dip coater encased in a vacuum chamber in which we admitted various gases. An appropriate choice of gases (air, carbon dioxide and helium) coupled with low pressure conditions from atmospheric down to 75 mbar enables us to test whether gas solubility is a key determinant in gas entrainment. The data presented here track the evolution in time of the size of bubbles of gas entrained in the liquid (silicone oil) which we observed to always occur at a critical speed, immediately after the dynamic wetting line breaks from a straight line into a serrated line with tiny vees the downstream apices of which are the locations from which the bubbles stream out. The results suggest that permeability combining solubility and diffusivity as a single parameter dictates the rate of dissolution when at atmospheric pressure. Helium, despite its comparatively sluggish rate of dissolution/growth into silicone oil was observed to have a more enhanced gas entrainment speed than air and carbon dioxide. Thus, the hypothetical contention from previous work (Miyamoto and Scriven, 1982) that gas can be entrained as a thin film which breaks into bubbles before dynamic wetting failure occurs is not realised, at least not in dip coating. The data presented here reinforce recent work by Benkreira and Ikin (2010) that thin film gas viscosity is the critical factor, over-riding dissolution during gas entrainment. This finding is fundamentally important and new and provides the experimental basis needed to develop and underpin new models for gas entrainment in coating flows.

Les tubes polymères, de PDMS ou de PVC, sont des matériaux hydrophobes polyvalents et peu couteux. Ils sont très largement utilisés dans l'industrie pour transférer des fluides plus ou moins complexes tels que de l'eau potable, des émulsions (e.g lait), des suspensions (e.g café), ou encore des solutions de molécules actives (e.g médicament). La plupart de ces applications mettent en jeux des écoulements intermittents répétés de liquide qui peuvent contaminer le matériau. Cette étude a pour but de mieux comprendre comment ces écoulements de fluides complexes entraînent la contamination des tubes. Nous étudions expérimentalement et théoriquement les régimes d'un segment de liquide de faible viscosité s'écoulant dans un tube en conditions de mouillage partiel. Deux processus sont en compétition : à cause de la vitesse élevée du segment de liquide, un film de liquide se forme à l'arrière du segment, alors qu'à cause de des conditions de mouillage partiel le film de liquide démouille. Nous montrons qu'au-delà de la limite en vitesse correspondant à la transition de mouillage dynamique qui est bien inférieure à la prédiction de Cox-Voinov, un régime précédemment inconnu avec un film épais, dont l'épaisseur dépend de la vitesse, est obtenu bien avant la formation classique d'un film de Landau-Levich-Derjaguin. Nos simulations numériques sont en partie en accord avec nos observations. / Polymer tubes, made of PDMS or PVC, are versatile, low cost, hydrophobic materials. They are heavily used in industry for transferring more or less complex fluids such as drinkable water, emulsions (e.g milk), suspensions (e.g coffee), or solution of active molecules (e.g pharmaceutics). Most of these applications involve repeated, intermittent flow of liquids which can lead to unwanted contamination. This study aims at better understanding the mechanisms of contamination for intermittent flow. We experimentally and theoretically investigate the flow regimes of low viscosity liquid slugs flowing down a vertical tube under partial wetting condition. Two processes are in competition: because of the large slug velocity, a liquid film tends to be created at the back of the slug whereas because of the partial wetting condition, the liquid film dewets. We investigate how this competition controls film deposition in hydrophobic tubes. We show that above the threshold velocity for dynamic wetting which is much lower than predicted by Cox-Voinov, a previously unknown regime is found where we observe a velocity dependent thick film well before the classical Landau-Levich-Derjaguin regime.

Polydimethylsiloxan (PDMS)-basierte Materialien finden Verwendung als Schirmmaterial für Verbundisolatoren in der Hochspannungstechnik. Diese Schirmmaterialen benötigen im Außeneinsatz eine herausragende Hydrophobie, um Spannungsüberschläge durch leitfähige Elektrolytfilme zu vermeiden. Im Außeneinsatz widerfährt ein Schirmmaterial unterschiedliche Witterungsbedingungen wie z.B.: Regen oder Betauungsvorgänge. Unter Wirkung hoher elektrischer Felder können dann auf der Oberfläche Tropfenteilentladungen auftreten, die zu einer Hydrophilisierung der Oberfläche führen. Ziel der Arbeit ist es die Materialparameter zu beleuchten, die einen Einfluss auf die Hydrophobiebeständigkeit von Schirmmaterialien besitzen. Kommerziell erhältliche Silikon-Komposite besitzen neben dem eigentlichen Silikonnetzwerk auch Füllstoffe in unbekannter Art und Konzentration, wodurch eine Ursachenfindung für den Hydrophobieverlust erschwert ist. Aus diesem Grund wurde auf eigens synthetisierte Silikonelastomere zurückgegriffen. Diese wurden durch platinkatalysierte Hydrosilylierungsreaktion aus vinylterminierten PDMS (vPDMS) und dem tetrafunktionalem Vernetzer Tetrakis(dimethylsiloxysilan) (TDSS) hergestellt. Durch Variation der Kettenlängen des vPDMS und durch Variation des stöchiometrischen Verhältnisses konnte ein vPDMS-TDSS-Modell-Silikonsystem entwickelt werden, worin Netzwerkparameter (Netzwerkdichte und Sol-Anteil) gezielt justiert werden konnten. Die hergestellten Silikonelastomere wurden anschließend hinsichtlich ihrer Hydrophobie untersucht und im Anschluss gegenüber ihrer Beständigkeit gegenüber Tropfenteilentladungen getestet. Zur Simulation der kombinierten elektrischen und elektrolytischen Beanspruchung wurden dynamische Tropfentests durchgeführt, um die Hydrophobiebeständigkeit zu untersuchen. Im Rahmen der Arbeit wurde festgestellt, dass insbesondere die Steifigkeit der Materialien einen wesentlichen Einfluss auf die Hydrophobiebeständigkeit von Silikonen hat. Zusätzlich beeinflusst die Rauheit eines Materials die Ausfallzeiten im dynamischen Tropfentest maßgeblich. Darüber hinaus führt ein überlagerter Ölfilm auf der strukturierten Oberfläche dazu, dass sich das Abgleitverhalten von Wassertropfen im Laufe der Zeit verändert.