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"Plasma cleaning prior to coil coating" - Plasmatreat presents a world first at ALUMINIUM 2006
From 20-22 September 2006 at the exhibition centre in Essen experts in
the international aluminium industry and all of the trade sectors using
their product gathered together at the world's most important
exhibition for aluminium. More than 15,000 specialist visitors from
more than 80 nations exchanged information about the latest
developments in the market.
Plasmatreat enjoyed great success in presenting its innovative solutions and latest technological developments in the fields of "Plasma pretreatment of aluminium profiles", "Cleaning and coating aluminium housings prior to bonding" and "Cleaning sheet metal prior to coil coating".
The pretreatment of aluminium profiles prior to lamination today usually requires several working steps from cleaning, through coating with primers up to, in part, mechanical pretreatment. In the decorative and design fields profiles are laminated with finishing films which lend the product the desired visual appearance and good feel when handled. At the same time, very high requirements are imposed on the bonding of the film to the metal. The polyurethane and epoxy resin adhesives employed for this purpose require an optimally pretreated metal surface to ensure secure bonding. Openair Plasma allows not only continuous pretreatment in a single step, it also fulfils all requirements for optimum surface treatment, i.e. aluminium profiles are intensively cleaned and activated prior to lamination.
The bonding and sealing of aluminium housings is state of the art. However, nowadays using conventional pretreatment methods - such as wet chemical processes - considerable expense has to be incurred in order to bond aluminium surfaces durably, even under the action of corrosive media such as moisture and salt. The cleaning and activation of aluminium housings prior to bonding and sealing using Openair Plasma affords the unique opportunity of replacing chemical treatment steps by just one efficient, environmentally friendly and hence lower-cost process.
World first: The cleaning of sheet metal webs prior to the coil coating process can now be done by means of Openair Plasma.
World innovation: On the subject “Cleaning sheet metal prior to the coil coating process” Plasmatreat presented a plasma process that was developed in collaboration with Europe’s leading manufacturer of roller shutters, Griesser AG, Switzerland. For this purpose Griesser AG’s project leader had commissioned the research company Nanocraft to carry out the necessary analyses and to examine the standard requirements imposed on the quality of pre-treatment. With this new process Openair Plasma technology will be employed for the first time anywhere in the world in-line in a coil coating plant (aluminium strip coating plant).
Before sheet metal is coated extensive and expensive chemical cleaning processes are usually employed to free the material from oils and grease in order to ensure good adhesion of the coatings. In contrast, when Openair® Plasma is used sheet metal surfaces can be cleaned not only in absolutely environmentally friendly manner but also much more economically and efficiently. Its unrestricted compatibility with in-line systems allows troublefree integration into new and already existing installations, on the one hand, and lowers operating costs, on the other hand, since only compressed air and electric energy are needed.
Peeping Tom: The new computer-controlled Openair Plasma laboratory unit.
A new laboratory installation with which customers can carry out their own tests and trials met with great interest. It has an integrated transport unit and is fully computer-controlled so that all data are reproducible. The treatment rates required later in production can be simulated with great precision using this installation.
