Trade fair highlight 06. September 2024

For technical, economic and environmental reasons, a manufacturer's decision to use a particular type of plastic can have a significant impact on the entire production process - especially with regard to the required adhesion properties, e.g. when applying adhesives or printing. This is where Openair-Plasma technology as a surface pretreatment method plays a decisive role in material selection and substitution. Through targeted surface modification of difficult-to-process plastics such as PP and PE, it significantly increases the adhesion of adhesives and paints in industrial applications. Originally incompatible plastics can often be joined together using plasma. This gives manufacturers the advantage of a wider choice of materials, allowing them to replace expensive engineering plastics with cheaper commodity plastics or recycled materials, for example.

In Friedrichshafen, visitors can see the various applications of plasma technology: the surface activation of plastic components is demonstrated in a PTU1212 (Plasma Treatment Unit). In this application, gentle activation takes place using an Openair-Plasma rotation nozzle. The second nozzle in the PTU is a special PlasmaPlus coating nozzle: by adding a silicon-like precursor to the plasma jet, nano-thin layers can be deposited on plastic surfaces without the use of solvent-based chemicals. Depending on the application, the surface is given different properties, such as an adhesion-promoting property.