AcXys Technologies’ plasma technologies

Surface treatment is now an essential step in many industries: automotive, electronics, packaging, medical… Atmospheric plasma is a cutting-edge technology for efficient and environmentally-friendly surface treatments.

At AcXys Technologies, we pride ourselves in fully developing our own plasma technologies, including the integrated electronics embedded in our generators and producing extremely efficient plasma sources.

These plasma technologies are designed for fast treatment of materials and are compatible with multi-material industrial applications.

Surface treatment is a set of processes applied to materials to modify their surface properties. It is used in response to a variety of problems:
Improving the wettability of surfaces to facilitate bonding or printing operations, while guaranteeing good adhesion.
Enabling the application of coatings with excellent adhesion.
Ensuring precision cleaning of surfaces.

The most widespread techniques include chemical treatment (e.g. application of chemical primers), flaming and mechanical treatment (e.g. sandblasting). However, these methods present significant environmental and cost constraints, not to mention safety risks. For more informations, click here.

What is surface treatment ?

What is the impact of plasma treatment on surfaces ?

Plasma state causes an important chemical activity that can be used on many materials to modify their upper surface. Simply direct the gaseous stream of reactive species towards the surface to be processed.

The resulting chemical reactions used for surface treatment can be split into three groups.

CLEANING AND DECONTAMINATION

Plasma technologies can remove extremely thin layers of superficial contaminants, whether of an organic or oil-hydrocarbon nature.

Some processes use this feature as a complement to liquid based cleaning technologies.

SURFACE ACTIVATION

Surface activation modifies the top surface of a material, adding atoms or molecules.

This simple process is widely used in industry, especially for applications designed to increase the adherence capacities of a glue, ink, paint or varnish.

For surface activation or finish cleaning, AcXys Technologies has developed two product ranges : ULS equipment and ULD equipment.

THIN LAYER DEPOSITION

Plasma technologies are used in thin layer deposit processes especially for surface modification.

Precursor chemical products, either liquid or gaseous, are injected into plasma to achieve the thin layer deposit.

The AcXys Technologies ULCoat equipment has been specifically developed for the purpose of depositing SiO2 layers.

What are the main areas of application for plasma surface treatment?

AcXys Technologies’ atmospheric plasma equipment offers a number of advantages for manufacturers:

• Efficiency: thanks to high-performance processes validated by years of experience and innovation;
• Economy: a technology that lowers operating costs and energy consumption thanks to its low-maintenance requirements and absence of consumables;
• Respect for the environment: non-polluting treatment;
• Safety: a secure industrial process.

Atmospheric plasma surface treatment is suitable for a wide range of materials, such as metal, glass, plastics, composites, etc., enabling it to be used in many industrial fields.