What is dyne surface testing
Bernard Olschewski • September 18, 2025
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What is Dyne Surface Testing?
Dyne testing is a quick and straightforward method used to measure the surface tension or surface energy of a material, often a polymer or plastic. A material's surface energy is crucial for determining how well it will bond with other materials, such as adhesives, inks, or coatings.
Think of it like this: water on a freshly waxed car beads up and rolls off. This is because the wax has very low surface energy, and the water (with its high surface tension) prefers to stick to itself rather than the car's surface. On an unwaxed car, the water spreads out, indicating a higher surface energy on the car's surface, which allows for better wetting.
How Does It Work?
Dyne testing uses special fluids or pens called dyne pens
that contain a mixture of solvents with a known surface tension value, measured in dynes/cm (or mN/m, which is the SI unit and numerically equivalent).
To perform a test, you simply draw a line on the material with a dyne pen.
If the fluid in the test pen
wets the surface (spreads out into a uniform film for at least 2 seconds), the surface energy of the material is equal to or greater than the dyne level of the pen.
If the fluid beads up or pulls back, the surface energy is lower than the dyne level of the pen.
By using a series of pens with increasing dyne values, you can quickly find the range of a material's surface energy. For example, if a 40 dyne pen wets the surface but a 42 dyne pen beads up, the surface energy of the material is somewhere between 40 and 42 dynes/cm.
Why is it Important?
Dyne testing is a vital quality control tool in many industries, including printing, packaging, and manufacturing. It helps ensure that surfaces are properly prepared before printing, bonding, or coating processes. Without sufficient surface energy, inks won't adhere properly, labels will peel off, and coatings will fail.
For example, a company printing on plastic bags can use dyne testing to verify that the plastic's surface has been properly treated (e.g., with corona treatment or plasma) to a high enough dyne level to ensure the ink sticks permanently. This simple test prevents costly production errors and product failures.
Remove the cap, attach the pen sponge, and apply the agent. After use, close the pen. The applied hydrophobic agent should sit for 24 hours. The fluid can be applied to edges, wood-based materials, and solid wood panels. Soak a microfiber cloth and wet the surface. Alternatively, spray the fluid and spread it with a cloth. After about 15 seconds, remove excess material. Curing is possible at up to 80°C. In fully automated edge banding systems, use precision nozzles for application. An optimal spray width is about five millimeters. The treated parts can be processed immediately, increasing efficiency in your operation. Rely on 1 LA 401 to protect your surfaces from wear and moisture and maximize their longevity.
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Test the surface tension of pretreated plastics with our Test Ink 38 dyne – LT 01649 . This test ink allows precise verification of surface tension after the pretreatment of plastics like PP and PE. It is suitable for corona, plasma, and primer pretreatment, as well as pretreatment with gas flaming. Success can be immediately recognized by a closed ink film, necessary adjustments can be deduced from the beading effect. Unlike many other test inks, the test result can be permanently read, so test samples can be stored for documentation. It is also available in smaller quantities and can be obtained directly from printec with a minimum order quantity of 1 liter. The practical marker (5 ml) is also available as an easy-to-use test tool that has proven itself thousands of times in daily use by film manufacturers and printing companies.
We gave our testing ink 38 dyne Test-ink a design make-over.
A new lflyer with the latest product information is also available. The testing ink 38 dyne Test-ink is for controling the surface tension after the pre-teatment of plastics such as PP, PE etc. Suitable for corona, plasma, primer and flame-treatment. Our testing ink 38 dyne Test-ink is available in small quantities as little as one pen.