Relyon Plasma: Plasma treatment for coding and marking printing
Plasma treatment from Relyon Plasma improves print quality in coding and marking printing, for example when printing PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene). Prior surface treatment with cold atmospheric pressure plasma enables high-quality and reliable marking.
In many areas of industrial printing, cold atmospheric pressure plasma is used to print on plastics that are difficult to print on due to their surface properties. Plasma treatment greatly improves the adhesion of the printing inks to the surface and thus increases the print quality. The compact PiezoBrush PZ3-i plasma unit from Relyon Plasma is particularly easy to integrate into existing production lines. Or, for small series for manual pre-treatment, the use of the PiezoBrush PZ3 handheld plasma unit. While data matrix codes for permanent direct marking used to be applied by laser or embossing, they are now increasingly being used as printed code images. Here, the code must have both good legibility and abrasion-resistant printing.
A leading company in the development, production and sale of tool solutions for surface processing uses the Relyon Plasma PiezoBrush PZ3-i in conjunction with the Keyence MK-G1000SA continuous inkjet printer to mark PTFE fabrics reliably and effectively. PTFE is one of the most important fluoroplastics due to its good non-stick properties and extreme heat and chemical resistance. However, PTFE has a surface energy of less than 30 mN/m without prior plasma treatment. Plasma treatment with the PiezoBrush PZ3-i increases the surface energy to at least 38 mN/m, which makes all the difference. Without this increase in surface energy, it is not possible to bond the printer ink. The printed image appears faded, is not abrasion-resistant and the data matrix codes used cannot be read. By integrating cold plasma treatment into the process sequence, good legibility of the printed data matrix code and its fatigue strength can be guaranteed even under difficult conditions such as friction and temperature. Pre-treatment with the PiezoBrush PZ3-i in marking printing ensures traceability and reliable processes in the subsequent process steps. The plasma treatment of the surface cleans the surfaces to be printed of the smallest organic impurities and leads to an additional molecular modification of the surface topography. As a result, plasma functionalization at atmospheric pressure avoids expensive vacuum systems or toxic wet chemistry, which has a positive effect on costs, safety and the environment.