What is Plasma Treatment?

Plasma treatment is a method to plasma clean, activate, etch, and coat surfaces. It is more environmentally friendly and cost effective compared to alternative methods since no waste disposal of harmful chemicals is necessary. This makes this method ideal for a variety of applications like cleaning aerospace or automotive components. Thierry Plasma offers two types of plasma systems, low pressure and atmospheric pressure. Low pressure plasma treatment systems can treat 2-D objects, 3-D objects, and bulk materials uniformly. In contrast, atmospheric pressure plasma treatment systems can treat 2-D objects uniformly and can be incorporated into existing automated systems.

Plasma Treatment of Powders

Powders have many properties that prevent them from being an ideal material for certain industries. They have low wettability (adhesion) and large surface area. To modify the surface, plasma treatment is currently a low budget, environmentally-friendly (no waste disposal of dangerous chemicals), and successful option. Plasma treatment can effectively plasma clean or plasma activate the surfaces of powder. It also has the ability to create hydrophilic properties in the powder through increasing the wettability. The contact angle decreases while the surface energy increases as the powder is treated for a longer period of time. Other treatment options such as flame treatment and wet chemistry processes are costly, harmful to the environment, and even dangerous. They also may not be as effective as plasma treatment. Plasma treatment is currently the most popular form of treatment for powders.