Liqui-Nox® as a Leak Detection Aid
Use the superior surfactant characteristics to track down slow leaks in any pressurized or vacuum system
Introduction:
There are those of us who have worked around high vacuum for our entire
careers, and our philosophy is that "everything leaks" and it is our
responsibility to keep such leakage to a minimum. In otherwise, leaks have
to be managed.
But before a leak can be "managed" it has to first be found.
We are talking about a "soap solution" much like many of us have seen
workers do on a leaking tire in a "service" station or tire repair facility
when they have been trying to "find" the leak. The tire is pressured up,
and a soap solution having the characteristics of Liqui-Nox
is applied to the outside of the tire, and then one starts looking for the
bubbles. In order for the soap (e.g. Liqui-Nox) to be effective, it must
make bubbles and not foam up. The whole world knows this as the "bubble
test" and while various soaps can be used for this purpose, nothing is
better than Liqui-Nox.
Liqui-Nox is also used in the welding industry to find leaks in welds. The
same kind of bubble test is performed, using Liqui-Nox straight, as it comes
out of the bottle in concentrated form. This formulation will make good
bubbles but might be a bit difficult to rinse off after the completion of
the testing.
A variation of this procedure is to use a mixture of Liqui-Nox, deionized
water and corn syrup. One usually has to adjust the ratios of the three
ingredients to get the right viscosity for their particular application.
This is the way a child's bubble-blowing solution is made, and the corn
syrup increases the viscosity of the liquid, making the bubbles stronger and
the solution less likely to run off. The problem with just diluting
Liqui-Nox with deionized water is that the liquid may run off the surface
being tested, giving false negative results. Ideally, you want a solution
that will stay in place, so that it can produce bubbles if placed directly
over the point of a leak.
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Friday February 03, 2012
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