Cleanliness and Particle Analysis Microscopes
Contaminant control is critical in precision manufacturing, especially in industries like automotive, aerospace, and medical devices, where even microscopic particles can compromise performance or cause system failures. Evident’s cleanliness and particle analysis microscopes are designed to help manufacturers meet technical cleanliness standards with confidence.
Built for both experts and novice operators, these automated systems streamline the inspection process with intuitive software and powerful imaging tools. From development to final quality control, Evident cleanliness inspection microscopes enable fast, accurate detection and analysis of particulate contamination, supporting higher product quality, longer component life, and greater reliability.
Explore our solutions to make cleanliness inspections easier, faster, and more consistent.
Cleanliness Inspection Systems
CIX100
The CIX100 inspection system supports fast, reliable technical cleanliness analysis for manufacturers with high quality standards. Designed for efficient acquisition, processing, and documentation of cleanliness data, it helps ensure compliance with company and international requirements. Paired with PRECiV™ CIX software, the system delivers guided workflows, industry-leading speed for high-throughput labs, and one-click, compliant results customizable to standards such as ISO 16232 and VDA 19—enabling even novice users to work quickly and confidently.
DSX2000
The DSX2000 digital microscope with PRECiV™ ADM software enables automated technical cleanliness inspection in one easy-to-use platform. Designed for QA and QC teams, it combines optimized imaging, precise particle detection, and guided workflows to deliver accurate, repeatable results. One-click compliant analysis, customizable to company and international standards such as ISO 16232 and VDA 19, supports clear, consistent results with less effort.
Cleanliness Analysis Applications
Technical cleanliness analysis has become an essential quality control practice across multiple industries where even tiny particles can compromise performance or safety.
Automotive Manufacturing
Automotive companies rigorously inspect components (such as fuel injectors, engine parts, and braking systems) for residual metallic or non-metallic particles. Even minimal metal contamination on a piston ring or in a fuel line can scratch surfaces or cause engine damage over time. With the rise of electric vehicles, cleanliness of battery components is also critical—metal particles in a battery can trigger short circuits or fires. Using particle analysis microscopes, manufacturers ensure each part meets cleanliness specifications to help prevent failures and enhance long-term reliability.
Piston rings.
Microscope analysis of particle contamination from a tape lift sample, a common sampling method in the aerospace industry.
Aerospace and Defense
In the aerospace and defense industries, cleanliness analysis is paramount. Microscopic contaminants can reduce the lifespan of components or cause malfunctions in flight-critical systems. Turbine blades, hydraulic lines, fuel system components, and other high-precision parts are tested for particle contamination to ensure reliable performance. Stringent technical cleanliness standards, such as IEST-STD-CC1246E with compliance to Level 200 Note 3, require detailed data on particle size and count. Microscope-based cleanliness inspection systems help aerospace manufacturers minimize contamination, reduce downtime, and comply with these rigorous standards.
Industrial Fluids and Power Generation
Particle analysis microscopes are also used to monitor contamination in oils, hydraulic fluids, and other liquids used in industrial equipment. Particulate contamination is a leading cause of machinery failure in hydraulics and oil-filled systems. For example, wear debris in turbine or engine oil can indicate component degradation and lead to costly downtime if unchecked. Oil cleanliness analysis, often following standards like ISO 4406 for particle count in fluids, helps maintenance teams identify problems early. By analyzing filter membranes or oil samples under a microscope, engineers can detect harmful particles, determine their sources (such as abnormal machine wear), and take preventive action to avoid equipment breakdowns.
Example oil analysis process from sample prep to particle review. Image courtesy of Europafilter Norge.
Checking the technical cleanliness of syringe filters is a critical step in the production process.
Medical Devices and Electronics
In medical device manufacturing and high-tech electronics, maintaining ultra-clean components is vital. Implantable medical devices such as artificial valves and implants, as well as disposable medical products like medical bags and syringes, must be essentially free of particulates to reduce patient risk. Likewise, sensitive electronic components, including semiconductor wafers and hard drives, can be compromised by a single particle of dust or metal. Particle analysis microscopes are used to verify cleanroom processes and ensure these sensitive products meet cleanliness requirements. For instance, particle analysis of surfaces and assembly environments can confirm that contamination levels stay within acceptable limits, supporting improved product yield and safety.
Cleanliness Inspection Best Practices
Additional Resources for Cleanliness Inspection
Discover the basics of component cleanliness inspection, from how technical cleanliness affects a product’s reliability to the systems required to conduct technical cleanliness inspections.
Access our guide on the workflow for technical cleanliness analysis. From preparation to final reporting, learn about each workflow step and how a turnkey particle analysis microscope simplifies the process.
Explore common international technical cleanliness standards in our exclusive guide. Discover the methods used to evaluate the cleanliness of component parts, as well prepare the filter membrane samples.
Learn about the wide range of hardware accessories used for different cleanliness inspection applications in this guide. Find sample holders with different shapes, diameters, and background colors to suit your inspection.
Access our exclusive e-book to learn about metal contamination analysis of automotive lithium-ion batteries. Discover how easy-to-use workflows enable you to inspect test samples quickly and reliably.
Explore how industrial particulate inspections of liquids, such as oil and hydraulic fluids, can help prevent equipment wear, corrosion, and downtime using automated microscopy.
Learn how contaminants are extracted, filtered, and measured using microscopy and standardized particle size classification to assess cleanliness and support quality control in accordance with standards such as VDA 19.1 and ISO 16232.
Keeping oil free of tiny particles is critical because contamination leads to wear, corrosion, and unexpected downtime. This guide walks through the technical cleanliness process for oil, from sampling and filtration to automated imaging and compliant reporting.
By removing contamination from oil, cleaning systems can reduce or eliminate oil changes, increase machine lifetime, and reduce operating and maintenance costs. In this interview, an application specialist shares how the cleanliness of oil is analyzed.
Cleanliness Analysis Microscope FAQs
What is technical cleanliness analysis?
Technical cleanliness analysis refers to the process of detecting and measuring unwanted particulate contamination on parts or surfaces to ensure they are technically clean (i.e., free of harmful debris). In industrial terms, technical cleanliness is defined as the absence of unwanted particles or contaminants on a component’s surface or within its fluid systems.
How do you perform a cleanliness inspection on a component?
Cleanliness inspections typically follow a step-by-step workflow to extract particles from a part and analyze them under a microscope. A simplified overview of the workflow is:
1. Contaminant Extraction: First, the part is washed or rinsed in a controlled way to dislodge any particles from its surfaces. The wash fluid (often a solvent) carries away the particles. This fluid is then filtered through a membrane to collect the particles on the filter for analysis. (In cases where washing is not feasible, other methods like tape lift sampling can be used to pick up particles from the surface).
2. Microscopic Analysis: The particle-laden filter membrane is placed under a microscope for analysis. Using calibrated optics and software, an automated particle analysis is performed: the microscope scans the filter to locate all particles and measures their sizes, shapes, and optical properties. At this stage, the system can count the number of particles and record dimensions (such as each particle’s length or diameter) across the entire filter area.
3. Particle Classification: The detected particles are then classified into categories. Typically, the software will sort particles into size classes (e.g. 5–15 µm, 16–25 µm) as defined by the relevant standard or user setting and identify particle types. A key part of cleanliness analysis is distinguishing metallic (reflective) particles vs. non-metallic particles, as well as identifying fibers (often considered separately). This classification helps determine the contamination’s nature. For example, metallic particles might indicate wear of a metal part, while fibers might come from packaging or filters.
4. Contamination Level Evaluation: Once all particles are counted and classified, the overall contamination level of the component is evaluated. This often involves comparing the results to acceptable limits defined by a cleanliness standard or specification. For instance, standards may specify a maximum allowable count of particles in certain size ranges. The software will calculate cleanliness codes or contamination levels (such as ISO cleanliness codes for fluids, or pass/fail against VDA 19 limits for parts) based on the particle data.
5. Results Reporting: The final step is to review the results and generate a cleanliness inspection report. The report typically includes the total particle counts, counts per size class, identification of the largest particles, and whether the part passed the cleanliness requirements. Modern cleanliness analysis systems can automatically create standardized reports at the push of a button, complete with images of the largest particles and summary tables of the data. These reports provide traceability and can be shared with customers or used for quality audits.
What standards define component cleanliness requirements?
Most processing steps for technical cleanliness inspections are defined in company-specific and international standards. These definitions are specialized for different applications. International standards specify methods to evaluate the cleanliness of component parts, as well as methods to prepare the filter membrane samples. Company-specific standards are usually a variation of an international standard.
The following list highlights common international technical cleanliness standards:
How do automated cleanliness analysis microscopes improve efficiency?
Performing cleanliness analysis manually can be time-consuming, as there may be hundreds or thousands of particles to count and measure on a single filter. Automated cleanliness analysis microscope systems can significantly improve efficiency and accuracy in several ways:
- High-Throughput Scanning: Automation allows many samples or a large filter area to be analyzed in a fraction of the time of manual inspection. Advanced systems use motorized stages and optimized algorithms to scan the entire filter quickly and reliably, so you can analyze more in less time.
- One-Pass Particle Differentiation: Traditional methods might require scanning a sample twice under different lighting (polarization) to distinguish metallic vs. non-metallic particles. Modern automated microscopes can perform this differentiation in a single scan, cutting inspection time in half.
- Automated Classification: The software in cleanliness inspector systems automatically measures each particle’s size and shape and classifies particles by size range and type with minimal user input. Human error is minimized, and results are more consistent and repeatable.
- Repeatability and Reproducibility: Automated systems typically enable users to create configurations or saved settings for their inspections. All microscope settings (such as illumination, focus, calibration) and analysis parameters can be saved and automatically applied for each run.
- Instant Reporting: With manual processes, compiling the cleanliness report to include all relevant information, such as tables of particle counts and graphs, can be a separate, tedious task. Automated microscopy systems generate comprehensive reports with one click, immediately after analysis. All data are securely saved for easy access to images, data, and reports at a later date.