Archive: Jul 2021

The Basics of Corona Treatment

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For more than 30 years, 3DT has been a leader in providing high quality surface treatment solutions, including corona treatment equipment. Our innovative surface treating equipment can handle even the most challenging adhesion problems for a wide range of industries. With custom capabilities and a range of services, we can create systems based on your unique needs and application requirements.

What Is Corona Treatment?

Corona treatment is used to increase the surface energy of plastic and other materials for improved adhesion of inks, adhesives, and coatings. Corona treated materials feature higher printing and coating quality than materials that do not undergo this treatment.

Because polymers and many other substrates are non-porous, they don’t absorb ink, paint, and adhesive. Instead, media sits on the surface without bonding to it. By increasing the surface tension through microscopic chemical change of plastic materials, the ink or glue now has something to “hold on to”.

Corona surface treatment can be applied to a wide range of materials, including, but not limited to:

Polymers such as:

  • Polypropylene
  • Polyethylene
  • Polystyrene
  • Elastomers
  • PET
  • PVC
  • Polycarbonate
  • Vinyl
  • Silicone Rubber

Other materials such as:

  • Foam
  • Foil
  • Aluminum
  • Metalized Surfaces
  • Glass
  • Composites
  • Paper

To treat the material, it’s placed under a cloud of corona discharge, which is created by exposing atmospheric air to different voltage potentials. The electrons hold energy up to three times higher than what’s needed to break molecular bonds on the surface, and the free radicals quickly go to work oxidizing the material in the cloud. The result is increased surface tension, which allows for wetting and adhesion.

The Benefits of Corona Treatment and How 3DT Can Help

Besides improved adhesion for coatings, inks, and adhesives, corona treatment offers a wide range of benefits, including:

  • Fast production. Even the most stubborn material can be corona treated in a matter of seconds facilitating the fastest, high volume production lines.
  • Reduced waste. Materials have to be discarded if the adhesion process fails. Treating the surface ensures your paint, coating, or glue will stick the first time, so you won’t have any failed attempts that result in wasted time and materials.
  • Eliminates migrating additives. Many materials contain additives to enhance a particular quality of that material. Over time, those additives may migrate to the surface, and if they’re left to sit on the surface, the ink will bond to the additives instead of the material itself. Corona treatment removes any additives that have risen to the surface.
  • Reduce decaying surfaces. Bump treatment can be used to restore the surface tension in old, pretreated materials. This means you don’t have to worry about the surface decay of a material that’s been held in inventory for a long time. Simply apply the bump treatment, and you can return the surface to its pretreated adhesion potential.
  • Facilitates Green manufacturing. With the increased use of environmentally-friendly, solvent-free paints, primers and adhesives the need for surface treatment is more important than ever. Water-based products resist adhesion to many substrates, especially polymers, but not once they are corona treated.

At 3DT, we improve adhesion and bonding on a wide variety of substrates, including polymers, rubber, composites, glass, foam, and more. Surface treatment systems for 3D objects are our forte, but we also manufacture systems for panels, sheets and film. Our comprehensive solutions go from design to manufacturing, installation, and service. Every sale is backed by our extensive experience and a dedicated sales and service team. Your success is our success, so we go above and beyond to create the best possible solution for your needs.

Corona Treatment Solutions from 3DT

Corona treatment is a highly beneficial process that is crucial for a wide range of substrates. Contact 3DT to learn more about our corona treatment equipment, or view our range of products to find the best solution for you. No matter where in the world you do business, you can find a distributor to connect you with the services you need.

 

Infographic The Benefits of Corona Treatment

 

 

Corona vs. Plasma Treatment

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For more than 30 years, 3DT LLC has been a leading provider of specialized corona and plasma surface treatments for customers around the world. Our state-of-the-art systems can be used as stand-alone stations, incorporated into new and existing production processes, or integrated into fully or semi-automated production lines. With 3DT’s 2- and 3- dimensional treating systems and a wide variety of custom configurations, we have a solution for virtually any application. In addition to manufacturing our cutting-edge equipment, we offer services such as design, manufacturing, product handling, installation, training, and maintenance service.

One of the more common questions we field about electrical surface treatment is, “What is the difference between corona and plasma treatment?” and then, “What best fits my application?” Both corona and plasma treatment increase the surface energy of numerous materials improving the adhesion of inks, adhesives, coatings, and other agents. However, they both have unique properties that require consideration in terms of applications.

PlasmaDyne Pro surface treatment system from 3DT

In this post, we discuss the advantages and uses of corona treatment vs. plasma treatment, to aide in your understanding. However, our sales team will actively guide you in selecting the best system for your material, process and application.

What is Corona & Plasma Treatment?

How Does it Work?

Corona and plasma treatment are both forms of electrical surface treatment. They use the power of electrical energy to change the chemical properties of material placed within an energy stream. This stream of electrically loaded molecules causes an intensified reaction with the material resulting in better wettability and stronger bonding traits. Electrical surface treatment is highly suitable for three-dimensional polymer parts, thin film, rubber profiles, glass labware, metal parts, coated paperboard and thicker materials such as foam and solid sheets of material.

When this phenomenon is contained inside an electrically grounded chamber, an air stream can be introduced to this chamber to force the plasma outwards in a controlled fashion and onto materials in a process called plasma treatment or atmospheric plasma treatment. However, when an insulator is placed between the two electrodes, the avalanche effect is avoided and the result is a cloud or arc of ionized air. This ionized air – Corona Discharge – can now be used for the surface treatment of a wide number of materials that show poor or no adhesion properties to media such as printing inks, adhesives, etc.

 

multidyne corona treatment

                                         Illustration: Corona Treating Head

What’s the Difference Between Corona & Plasma Treatment?

Plasma discharge has a relatively narrow treating width but is capable of imparting enormous surface energies onto substrates.  Plasma has the added benefit of cleaning residue and contaminants from surfaces and even etches surfaces for the added benefit of increasing bonding with media. Plasma discharge is virtually potential-free so it can be used to treat conductive materials such as metal and alloys. 3DT’s PlasmaDyne systems offer a variety of types of plasma treating heads that can be quickly mounted onto existing lines with little setup. A unique benefit of our system is that the discharge level is adjustable for numerous applications. Plasma also produces no ozone gas which is a natural byproduct of the corona process.

Alternatively, corona discharge typically imparts less surface energy but can treat large areas. Corona treatment also has the advantage of being able to treat inside parts or in the recesses of 3-dimensional parts. Both methods are very effective in functionalizing surfaces for better adhesion. Check out the video below.

Our Most Popular Treatment Systems

3DT designs and manufactures an extensive range of cutting-edge surface treatment products, including:

multidyne MultiDyne™

3DT’s MultiDyne™ corona treatment system creates optimal surface tension, or wettability, on a broad range of parts and materials. Featuring repeatable and process controlled operation,  MultiDyne™ is typically used to prepare blow molded, injection molded, and extruded parts and products. MultiDyne™ creates highly effective, uniform adhesion on surfaces for printing, coating, gluing, and lamination.

MultiDyne™’s state-of-the-art corona discharge technology works by creating a short circuit between two high voltage electrodes. A constant flow of air between the electrodes facilitates even distribution of the corona field onto the surface of the treated material, creating a highly receptive adhesive surface. It is perfect for treating areas that are commonly a challenge for other surface treatments, including applications with complex geometries, hard-to-reach areas, and metal-adjacent surfaces.

PolyDyne™

polydyne conveyer ceramic system for surface treatmentPolyDyne™ is one of 3DT’s most powerful corona treatment systems. This extremely dependable and reliable system is particularly useful in high-speed operations, such as printing, extrusion, assembly, and coating production lines. PolyDyne™ is exceptionally versatile and can be used to treat everything from the interior surface of needle hubs to automotive components. Using the latest technology, PolyDyne™ directs corona treatment with an exceptional degree of precision onto virtually any surface.

PolyDyne™ is specifically designed with flexibility in mind. All of our systems can be customized to meet the particular needs of your application, including variety and number of treating heads, custom electrode systems, ozone eliminators, and material handling systems. For more resistant materials, we are pleased to offer our PolyDyne Pro™ system.

PlasmaDyne Pro™

PlasmaDyne Pro™ uses a stream of highly ionized plasma to modify the chemical properties of the surface material within the stream. The surface becomes functionalized and highly receptive to chemical bonding. This system also cleans and etches substrates for added bonding properties. PlasmaDyne Pro™ is unique within the industry because only 3DT’s technology offers adjustable treatment/power levels. This benefit increases treatment options regarding flexibility in substrates, parts, and treating modes all within one system.

PlasmaDyne Pro™ enhances the adhesion of ink, paint and adhesive to a wide range of components, from plastic tubing and medical devices to rubber automotive seals and metal parts. 3DT’s PlasmaDyne Pro™ is a compact, versatile system, with an optimized control unit, the highest in treatment levels and modular replacement parts that facilitate non-stop production. PlasmaDyne Pro™ is completely customizable. Let’s discuss your application today!

Premium Surface Treatment Systems by 3DT

At 3DT, we are committed to developing superior surface treatment systems for every industry.  We have spent decades at the forefront of corona and plasma technology and are dedicated to solving even the most complex adhesion challenges. To learn more about our surface treatment systems and related services, visit our product page, or contact our experts today.