Applications
The plasma jet is used inter alia in industry for activating and cleaning plastic and metal surfaces prior to adhesive bonding and painting processes. Even sheet materials having treatment widths of several metres can be treated today by aligning a large number of jets in a row. In doing so the modification of the surface achieved by plasma jets is comparable to the effects obtained with low-pressure plasma.
Depending on the power of the jet, the plasma beam can be up to 40 mm long and attain a treatment width of 15 mm. Special rotary systems allow a treatment width per jet tool of up to 13 cm. Depending on the required treatment performance, the plasma source is moved at a spacing of 10–40 mm and at a speed of 5–400 m/min relative to the surface of the material to be treated.
A key advantage of this system lies in its capability of being integrated in-line. This means that it can usually be installed without any difficulty in existing production systems. In addition the activation achievable is distinctly higher than in potential-based pretreatment methods (corona discharge).
It is possible to coat varied surfaces by means of this technique. Thus, anticorrosive layers and adhesion promoter layers can be applied to many metals without the use of solvents and hence in a environmentally friendly manner.
Read more about this topic: Atmospheric-pressure Plasma