Standardised conventional adhesion tests are time-consuming single-sample tests. Moreover, except for the pull-off test, all these tests provide only qualitative or semi-quantitative (ranking, respectively measurement of an adhesion-correlated quantity) information on adhesion. Sometimes, adhesion is evaluated even under compressive stress conditions (e.g. cross-cut and scratch test), which itself is a contradiction to adhesive strength as defined in terms of tensile force per area.
For optical coatings it has been shown that the pull-off test in a centrifuge is definitely a promising alternative with respect to the reliable, fast and quantitative determination of adhesive strength in N/mm2. The force-controlled centrifuge test is the only multiple-sample test which provides reliable quantitative information on the adhesive strength in agreement with DIN EN 15870 and DIN EN ISO 4624 on a statistical basis for up to eight samples simultaneously tested under identical testing conditions.
Although adhesion testing of coatings is of fundamental interest for quality assurance, it is still a challenge regarding reliable quantitative results. Because of the huge variety of coating/ substrate systems in terms of materials and thickness range, adhesion tests display the same variety as coating/substrate systems. Some tests are qualitative, many are quantitative but except for the pull (DIN EN ISO 15870) and pull-off test (DIN EN ISO 4624) adhesion is not measured in terms of force per area.
For optical coatings, the standardized tests according to ISO 9211-4 apply, i.e. abrasion tests (cheese cloth or eraser test) and adhesion tests (tape or cross-hatch test) with different degrees of severity. Instead of the adhesion strength, all these single-sample tests provide only quantitative information on the abrasion or adhesion resistance of a particular coating/ substrate system.
The centrifuge test has manifold advantages. First, it can be easily run as multiple-sample test. Second, adhesion strength is measured in absolute numbers (N/mm2). Third, the centrifuge test requires only a one-sided sample support instead of a two-sided sample clamping as the pull- and pull-off test do. Fourth, it is much easier and faster than many other tests. Fifth, the centrifuge technology additionally enables tests under defined climates or harsh environments. Last but not least, versatile test conditions (alternating loads at various load rates) important to fatigue testing can be easily realized by varying the number of revolutions.
The centrifuge test was applied to the testing of optical coatings on glass and CaF2. It could be shown that there are significant advantages compared to other tests. In particular, the centrifuge test was able to discriminate the adhesion strength for coating/substrate systems until failure which all passed the standardized tests of ISO 9211-4.