Material Factors in Relation to Development Time in Liquid-Penetrant Inspection. Part 1. Material Factors

In technical publications and European Standards the development time (i.e. time of getting out of penetrant from a discontinuity to the material surface) in penetration testing is specified within the range of 10-30 minutes. In practice, however, it is seen , that it is closely connected with the material type and ranges from several minutes to 24 hours. In the literature, only interactions coming from the penetrant are described, whereas those from the material under testing, i.e. the influence of material factors on adhesion between penetrant and material, are not taken into consideration. In this connection, it has been described precisely in the paper the adhesion phenomenon and also it has been indicated the other factors affecting the development time. Recapitulating the adhesion theories presented in the paper, it can be formulated two fundamental circumstances which must occur that adhesion joint may be formed, namely: the approach of the particles of two solids to the distance less than 0,9 nm while the high attractive force occurring between molecules should be connected with possibly low potential energy of the bond formed in this way.