How Does Plasma Treatment Increase Surface Energy?

One of the trickiest manufacturing processes is when a client wants to increase the bond strength of their materials. This requires a specific process known as plasma treatment or plasma activation. The plasma treatment process works to activate certain surfaces of your material with environmentally friendly methods. Read on to learn how plasma treatment increases surface energy.

What Is Surface Energy, and Why Is it Important?

Surface energy is a seemingly complicated topic that’s actually just basic chemistry. Think about any solid object. All the molecules that make up the body and bulk of the object’s material are surrounded by more molecules.

If you want a material with a surface that can easily accept bonds, you’ll need to find a process that can break up the already-established bonds The more broken up those bonds are, the more “surface energy” a material has. You want to cultivate high surface energy for material with the best bonding capabilities.

What Is Plasma?

Many people were taught that there are three types of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. Plasma is the oft-forgotten fourth type of matter—an ionized gas. You know that heating a solid can produce a liquid, and likewise, for a liquid to a gas. If you add the right energy to a gas, you get plasma.

How Does Plasma Treatment Work?

A plasma treatment removes hydrogen from the surface of a material and replaces the hydrogen molecules with oxygen-containing species. This simple change can transform a surface from one that rejects paints, coatings, and other adhesives to one that accepts them easily.

Is your facility in need of a plasma treatment machine? Our expert technicians can help set you up with anything you require.

Even though it may seem complicated, we hope you have a good sense of how plasma treatment increases surface energy and why it’s important. Contact Tri-Star Technologies for all your plasma treatment needs.