Openair-Plasma from Plasmatreat facilitates brilliant colors, pin-sharp images and long-lasting quality in printing applications. Pretreatment processes from the world market leader in atmospheric plasma technology also offer significant benefits in terms of cost effectiveness, process reliability and the environment. 

Low surface energy and poor adhesive characteristics are the most likely cause for the inability of materials to be printed effectively, or indeed at all. Homogenous wettability – and thus optimal adhesion of printing inks and coatings – is achieved only when the surface energy of the material to be printed is higher than that of the corresponding ink. This level of wettability can be obtained by pretreating the surface of the material with Openair-Plasma; for example, the highly effective microfine cleaning of metals and glass or gentle surface activation of plastics. This creates the optimal conditions for printing and has a positive effect on the quantity of ink required to achieve a uniform high-quality appearance. Pretreatment with atmospheric pressure plasma improves the adhesion of the ink to the printed object, intensifies the luminosity of the printing ink and ensures a consistent color gradient ¬– resulting in excellent color brilliance and a pin-sharp printed image. Improved adhesion also increases moisture and wear resistance and guarantees a long-lasting printed finish.

Flawless print quality and long-time stable adhesion of printing inks
Whether for digital, pad, screen or offset printing, flat or three-dimensional objects, small or large surfaces: all printing processes, shapes and materials benefit from a pretreatment with Openair-Plasma. Even difficult surfaces such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyamide (PA), polycarbonate (PC), glass or metal can be printed to the highest quality without requiring additional adhesion promoters – even with solvent-free inks which require the printed material to have a particularly high surface energy. A further plus point is that significant cost savings can be achieved by switching to more affordable plastics which would be difficult or even impossible to print without a plasma treatment. Furthermore, ink consumption can be reduced by around 15 percent.  

Functional nano-coatings for challenging materials and narrow process windows
Solvent-based primers and different etching processes are typically used to prepare the surfaces of hard-to-print materials for printing. However, these processes are often complex, unreliable, expensive and environmentally harmful. The PlasmaPlus process facilitates the application of a functional, transparent nano-coating as an alternative. The coating, referred to as a precursor, is incorporated directly into the Openair-Plasma jet, thereby enabling it to be integrated seamlessly into the pretreatment process. The plasma process is dry, cold, area-selective and extremely fast. Furthermore, Plasmatreat technology guarantees total process control and reproducibility, unrestricted in-line capabilities and easy integration into existing systems. This means that printing can take place immediately after pretreatment since time-consuming drying processes, for example, are no longer required. The PlasmaPlus print coating offers benefits in terms of adhesion, scratch resistance and moisture resistance notably for glass, metals and high-quality plastics. 

Printing