Originally Published EMDM September 2002
PRODUCT UPDATE
Plasma Electronic GmbHLow-temperature plasma processes are suited for most substances and materials. Depending on the process, the surface is either activated (prepared for wetting), degreased, cleaned, or coated. In the low-pressure plasma process, reactive gasses are fed into a vacuum chamber and are ionized by electrical energy. Low-pressure plasma treatments are biocompatible, hard, hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and wear and corrosion resistant.
Plasma Electronic GmbH (Neuenburg, Germany) manufactures low-pressure plasma units for cleaning, modifying, or coating surfaces of components. The units consist of a vacuum chamber, a high-frequency generator, a vacuum pumping system, a gas inlet, and a control unit.
Plasma Electronic has a proprietary pretreatment, Actiplas, which makes the surface of the component wettable to improve adhesion for lacquering, glueing, and printing. Plasmaclean is used for degreasing metals after drilling, milling, and deep drawing. Functional coatings are also available: Aquacer provides stable hydrophilicity for improved adhesion; Lipocer creates durable hydrophobic layers; Silicer offers a transparent protective coating; and Carbocer is a hard, flexible, friction-free coating. "Our DLC (diamond-like-carbon) carbon coating, which we call Carbocer, is very useful, because it is biocompatible, very hard, transparent in the infrared range, and chemically resistant," explains Jan Mokros, technical sales manager.
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