Automotive Manufacturing Industry

Automotive Manufacturing Industry

In a world where the economic situations keep varying with every passing minute, it is difficult to manage one’s fuel costs. In order to cut down on the fuel consumption of vehicles, the automotive manufacturing industry has made various modifications. These are practical measures that have reduced fuel consumption tremendously.

These measures have ensured that the vehicles manufactured, now provide better mileage and cut down on harmful emissions. These modifications have also brought down the amount of wear and tear that the engine experiences; thereby reducing maintenance costs. Read more

An Overview of Surface Activation

Materials with low surface energies like polymers and metals are not wettable by printing ink and adhesives. These materials require some treatment to match the surface tension of adhesives. The procedure of using chemicals, plasma or radiations for increasing the surface tension of non-polar materials is called as surface activation.

Although every method of activation has its own pros and cons, choice of the treatment method depends on the nature of the material being treated. For example, plasma treatment is commonly used to activate the polymer surfaces, while for metal surfaces UV radiations are used.

Surface activation
Use plasma to activate the surface of a material

 

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Applications of Plasma Treatment in the Automotive Industry

Plasma Treatment in the Automotive Industry
Plasma Treatment in the Automotive Industry

With the boom of customization and automation in the automotive industry, the need of finely tuned methods for producing high quality automobiles is also increasing. The automotive industry relies on a number of robust preconditioning processes for producing rugged and reliable automobiles. One of such processes is plasma treatment. Although automobile manufacturers have been using plasma treatment in the automotive industry for the surface treatment of automotive parts for years, plasma treatment can also be used for enhancing bonding characteristics of automobile parts.

What is Plasma Treatment?

Plasma refers to the fourth state of matter. According to the principles of chemical reactions, an element can change its state if enough energy is provided. When an element is in the gaseous state, extremely high energy is required to change the state from gas to plasma. Plasma consists of partially ionized atoms which possess high energy. When these excited particles come in contact with a metal surface they transfer their energy to the metal atoms, thus modifying the chemical and physical properties of the material. These modifications in the chemical properties make the material suitable for painting and adhesive bonding. This is the reason that plasma treatment is one of the most commonly used preconditioning processes in the automotive and aircraft industries.

How it Increases Surface Tension?

Automobiles are made of metals and plastic and both of these materials have considerably low surface tension. Low surface tension means less probability that the printing ink or paint will stick to the material surface. Plasma treatment in the automotive industry is used to increase the surface tension of plastic and metals and make them suitable for printing, bonding and painting. Read more

Fundamentals of Surface Activation

Fundamentals of Surface Activation

Although plastic can replace metals like aluminum and copper in many appliances due to its light weight, it cannot match the reliability of these metals. One way to improve the reliability of plastic is surface activation. Moreover, the technique can also be used to improve the physical properties of metals like conductivity, immunity to corrosion etc. Every industry relies on this technique for a number of purposes including metalizing, cleaning and improving adhesion.

What is Surface Activation?

Metal or plastic surfaces are treated with different chemicals, plasma or UV rays which energizes molecule and changes the atomic structure of the material up to the depth of few microns. It increases the polarity of the surface being treated thus increasing its wettability. On a commercial scale, surface activation is mostly used to enhance the surface tension of metals and plastics. In automobile, medical devices and aircraft industry, surface activation is used to make the material suitable for printing calibrations and adhesion.

Methods of Surface Activation

While there are a number of ways to treat metal surfaces, some of the most commonly used methods of polymer and metal activation are: Read more

Plasma Treatment Applications

Plasma Treatment Applications

The application of plasma treatment is not limited to the laboratories anymore. It has proven to be a basic tool needed for production since its invention. In the past, plasma treatment was used to fabricate microelectronic devices at first and then later opted by the medical, plastics, automotive and textile industries, etc. for various purposes i.e. surface activation, cleaning, etching, coating etc.

Below you see a video of the PlasmaTec-X device. A universal plasma device, that has many different applications, and that can be used in many industries:

In today’s world, plasmas are consistently used for treating plastic surfaces, cleaning syringe needles made out of stainless steel, and treating plastic lenses, performance textiles, balloon catheters for angioplasty, filter media, and golf balls with a diversified range of other products. Plasma treatment is so common that you would have trouble locating a product that’s not been through this process before finishing.

Plasma treatment is also used in:

  • Consumer electronics
  • Industrial electronics
  • Medical and biomedical industries
  • Fabrics and textiles
  • Hydrophilic coatings
  • Filtration
  • Automotive and aerospace industries
  • Creating an energy source
  • Repellant coatings (liquid) and many more fields.

Plasma Cleaning

Plasma cleaning is a method whereby a high energy stream is directed towards the surface that needs to be cleaned. The stream oxidizes any organic depositions present on the surface through oxygen plasma. Applying an inert gas plasma or argon plasma can also mechanically scrub away the deposits. Depending on the cleaning requirements, a diversified range of gases or a mixture of gases can be used to serve the purpose.
Activated plasma ions and atoms act like a sandblast that’s molecular in nature, breaking down the wall of organic contaminants present on a surface. During processing, these contaminants are vaporized yet again leading to evacuation from the enclosure. The intensity of a plasma treatment may depend on the flow rates of gas, vacuum degree, reactor geometry, pump speed, and diluents and reactants, etc.

Plasma cleaning can be used for:

  • Removing surface oxidation
  • Preparing surfaces of elastomers and plastics
  • Cleaning ceramics
  • Cleaning metal surfaces on a hyperfine level
  • Surface preparation of glass products e.g. ophthalmic items

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Plasma Flame Treatment

An overview of plasma flame surface activation technique

Plasma flame treatment is one of the most reliable surface activation techniques used in a number of industries for modifying the surface tension of metals and plastic. The technique is based on the production of plasma by combusting a hydrocarbon fuel at a very high temperature. The fuel is chosen in accordance with the physical and chemical properties of the surface being treated. Plasma consists of high energy ionized particles. When a material is placed in a plasma medium, plasma particles transfer their energy to the surface molecule of the material and increase the surface tension of the material thus making it suitable for adhesion and painting. Read more