Plasmatreat GmbH will present its systems and solutions for surface treatment with atmospheric pressure plasma at FAKUMA. The activation and coating of plastic surfaces prior to subsequent processing operations will be the company's focus.
Plasmatreat
Plasmatreat modifies plastic surfaces to enable new composites
During treatment with Openair-Plasma, groupings containing oxygen and nitrogen are introduced into the mostly non-polar plastics to increase the surface energy. This activation optimises the wettability of the surface, thus significantly increasing adhesion and enabling adhesives, paints and coatings to achieve long-term stability. Nanocoatings can be applied to surfaces with the special PlasmaPlus technology. One example is Plasmatreat’s PT-Bond coating, which ensures long-term stable adhesion of sealing systems. PT-Bond is a PlasmaPlus application specifically for the adhesive and sealing technology sector.
An organo-silicon compound is added to the plasma as a precursor. The chemical composition varies depending on the material and application. The PT-Bond layer is bi-functional and so ensures the adhesion-promoting function to both the substrate and adhesive.
Visitors to Fakuma can therefore experience surface treatment with plasma live. Plasmatreat will be presenting its InMould-Plasma process for plastics injection moulding. With the InMould-Plasma process based on traditional atmospheric pressure plasma technology, activation takes place inside the mould and is an integral part of multi-component injection moulding.
The InMould-Plasma process is suitable for producing industry-relevant, compatible plastic compounds from incompatible hard-soft material combinations using two-component injection moulding. Furthermore, it facilitates the use of more affordable standard plastics. This typically relates to combinations based on TPU and PP. However, this process can also be used to bond a wide range of other material combinations, and to significantly increase their adhesive strength.
Visitors can observe a Plasma Treatment Unit (PTU) with special component transport. In this unit, the nozzles are not moved, as is so often the case, but the various components are transported by 3 XPlanar Movers from Beckhoff Automation at the right time, to the right nozzle for treatment with Openair-Plasma. In Friedrichshafen, an in-mould plastic part and a component with electronics are treated in this PTU. An anti-corrosion coating is applied to a third component using the special PlasmaPlus AntiCorr process.