What’s Plasma Processing?

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Plasma machining uses ionized gas to improve surface durability and strength. Techniques include plasma activation, curing, cleaning, and polymerization. Plasma cleaning is popular due to its effectiveness and eco-friendliness. Plasma activation improves adhesion, while plasma polymerization creates stable polymers. Plasma curing is a simpler method of polymer synthesis with high adhesive qualities.

Plasma machining uses plasma, a gas-like state of matter in which a certain percentage of molecules are ionized, to improve the durability and strength of a particular surface. A plasma processing technician may engage in a variety of techniques, depending on the industrial purpose. These techniques include plasma activation, plasma curing, and plasma cleaning. Among the three, plasma cleaning is the most popular plasma application in the manufacturing industry.

When one surface needs to be able to adhere better to another surface, plasma activation can be used. The surface is usually some sort of polymer, while the plasma is made up of oxygen ions. Plasma strips the surface of its weak layers and oxidizes its top layer. Furthermore, oxidation promotes cross-linking of molecules in three-dimensional space, improving the adhesive qualities of the surface. This in turn leads to increased production of polar groups which, at the molecular level, are the building blocks of effective adhesion.

Polymers, or large chains of molecules with repeating units, can be synthesized using plasma polymerization, a plasma processing method. In plasma polymerization, gas particles that contain carbon, silicon or sulfur react with the plasma, becoming highly ionic particles. Due to the polymer manufacturing qualities of carbon, silicon and sulfur, the particles easily assemble into a crosslinked and stable polymer. By using external factors such as pressure, temperature and gas flow, the process of creating the polymer can be controlled.

The plasma curing method of plasma processing boasts a number of advantages. It is a much simpler polymer synthesis method than traditional polymerization. Furthermore, the adhesive qualities of the final product are high. The new material can adhere to other polymers, metal and even glass. Most often, polymers produced by plasma curing make excellent scratch resistant coatings and protective films.

Plasma cleaning is an effective way to remove harmful contaminants from a surface. Well regarded as an environmentally friendly industrial cleaning method, many manufacturing companies prefer plasma as a cleaning agent. Plasma is capable of conducting electricity. When this gas-like substance encounters electricity, it rises in temperature, which causes its ions to vibrate rapidly. The vibration of the ions will, in essence, clean any surface that it interacts with.

Energy is transferred from the movement of the ions to the surface in this plasma process. The energy modifies the surface in such a way as to change its physical and chemical properties without changing the overall composition of the rest of the material. Typically argon, oxygen, or a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen are used to create the plasma cleaner.




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