The title of this article says it all. There are a host of surface treating technologies available, but ultimately your application will determine which technology is best.
{Free Tech Paper Download: Corona, Plasma or Flame. Which is Best?}
The Enercon laboratory is a great place to put your application to the test. With the addition of flame surface treaters Enercon offers the industry a single source for a laboratory evaluation of corona, flame and atmospheric plasma. The benefit to you is comparable results in a controlled and unbiased environment.
How important is laboratory testing? Well consider this; many of our breakthroughs with atmospheric plasma have occurred during testing and experimentation with customer's substrates. As a result some of our customers are now doing things with atmospheric plasma surface treatment that were previously unthinkable.
In other cases corona proves to be the best technology for the application. Allowing our customers to test the differences within a technology is equally important. Bare Roll, Universal Roll and Covered Roll corona treating systems all have properties that distinguish themselves from one another.
Now that we offer flame treatment we can also fairly evaluate and compare that technology as well. Within the technology we can test different burner types to determine which will work best for your application.
In addition to the different types of treatment technologies there are also a wide range of options and features that can make or break an application. Correctly sized power supplies and proper web handling techniques are critical.
So the next time you're considering a surface treater give us a call. We'll provide the testing you need. And your application will determine which technology is right for you.
For now, take a look at the chart below. It provides a nice overview of how different technologies match up to different applications.
| Application |
Technology |
| Converting |
- Most use bare and universal roll corona treating
- High speed foil converting and metallization use flame
- Extrusion coating and laminating rely on ozone generation, flame, corona or a combination of all three
- Difficult to treat and engineered material applications use Plasma
|
| Extruding |
- Most standard width applications use covered rolls with either stainless tubes or segments for lane treating
- For high speed or ultra-wide BOPP, PET, OPP, PE and co-extruded film applications flame, corona or a combination of both treatments are generally used
- Difficult to treat and esoteric applications use Plasma
|
| Paperboard/PE coated paperboard |
- Most use flame to raise surface energy and burn off unwanted fibers
|
| Difficult to treat (and surface functionalization) |
- Plasma is used for engineered films, papers, foams, nonwovens, wovens, fibers, metals & powders. In addition to being able to raise the surface energy this technology also functionalizes surfaces.
|
As always if you have any questions or comments give me a call at 262-255-6070 or contact me via our web form .