Image analysis: A novel technique to determine the efficiency of wiping cloths

Abstract

The ability to absorb liquid and the dust removal performance are important factors for wiping cloths used to remove contaminants. We have developed a method that can determine the contaminant removal performance of wiping cloths. In the gravimetric method, experimental errors are unavoidable because the contaminant plate is much heavier than the contaminant material. However, we used image analysis to reduce the experimental errors, and did not use the heavy contaminant plate. The correlation coefficient between the image analysis and the gravimetric methods was very high, at R=0.97, with a significance level of 95 %. From the correlation analysis and empirical data, the image analysis method is a useful tool for measuring wiping efficiency. The wiping efficiency measured using image analysis has a close relationship to the wiping speed, viscosity of the contaminant, and wiping pressure, at the significance level of 95 %.