Printex is a leading manufacturer of pad printing equipment for a range of industries including the medical device field. Quite often their customers need to print on surfaces that have inherently low surface energy. To make inks bond with these surfaces Printex will either integrate a plasma treatment system into their pad printer or they’ll reccommend […]

Hella Australia Pty Ltd specializes in automotive lighting equipment and accessories for the most sophisticated new cars in the world. When they needed to improve silicone adhesive adhesion for a Toyota Camry headlamp assembly they found an atmospheric plasma treatment system solved the problem. The challenge was to improve adhesion on a glue track for a polypropylene headlamp. High temperature […]

From basic polyolefins to high performance engineered plastics, adhesion issues emerge and must be overcome if the integrity of interfacial adhesions with plastic parts are to be realized. “Leveraging Atmospheric Plasma Surface Activation Systems” explores the most advanced atmospheric plasma-based technologies available to meet the challenges of these plastics, as well as those challenges posed […]

The future of economical thin film solar cell manufacturing is dependent on new in-line process technology for high speed continuous production. One such revolutionary technology is atmospheric plasma surface pretreatment. Plasma Treatment offers unique economies for in-line production. Traditionally only vacuum plasma surface modification technology has been used in photovoltaic cell manufacturing. Vacuum plasma is […]

Surface Modification Techniques for Optimizing Adhesion to Automotive Plastics examines the benefits of using surface treatment technology on low polarity plastics commonly used in the automotive industry.

Energy curing technologies have evolved from infancy in the 1960s and have been in a maturing phase since the 1990s. Improvements in raw materials and a better understanding of the energy curing process made a substantial impact on ink-performance characteristics and have led to increasing acceptance of the technology among printers.

Knowledge is power. And to unleash the power of atmospheric plasma treatment it’s important to understand the sometimes subtle and sometimes substantial differences in air plasma, flame plasma and variable chemistry atmospheric plasma pretreatment technologies. Follow the links to learn how each of these different technologies generate plasma and surface treatment.

How can you determine if surface treatment provides the results you desire? Ideally you could integrate a plasma treating solution into your production line and see if the results meet your quality control standards. In most cases this is not practical, so laboratory treatment trials are your next best option.

Have you ever seen small insects walking on the water? Or small objects, such as needles or clips, floating on its surface? These amazing facts are due to surface tension.

The object of surface treating is to improve the wettability of the surface, thereby improving the ability to bond to solvents, adhesives, and coatings. In order for a surface to be properly wet by a liquid, the surface energy of the plastic must be higher than the surface tension of the liquid.