The versatility of the Bristow absorption tester – a review

Abstract

Abstract This paper reviews the use of the Bristow Absorption Tester (known also as the Bristow wheel) in the characterization of fiber-based substrates. The Bristow wheel is a laboratory-scale instrument that has been designed for studying substrate wettability and dynamic liquid absorption properties in short time intervals, which are important in many converting and printing processes of paper and paperboard. The tester also gives information about substrate roughness. The Bristow wheel has shown great usefulness in predicting print quality especially in inkjet applications, in which a good correlation between print quality (letter area) and ink penetration rate has been found by several researchers. The apparatus is particularly useful in dynamic wetting studies, but it has also been successfully used in numerous other research purposes such as the determination of the degree of sizing, evaluation of material glueability, and various coatability studies. Modifications of both the testing principle and the tester structure have also been reported. These include e. g. equipping the apparatus with a corona unit that makes it possible to mimic a printing process on a relevant time-scale. This review summarizes the reported applications of Bristow wheel with a special focus on tester performance and versatility.