Bond Testing for Effects of Silicone Contamination

Abstract

In 2003 ATK Thiokol discovered that the smocks and coveralls worn by its operations personnel for safety and contamination control were themselves contaminated with a silicone defoamer and a silicone oil. As a growing list of items have been identified as having this form of contamination, it was desirable to devise a test method to determine if the contamination level detected could cause subsequent processing concerns. The smocks and coveralls could potentially contact bonding surfaces during processing so the test method focused on dry transfer of the silicone from the clothing to the bonding surface.