Cleaning with Plasma

In today's advanced manufacturing processes, pristine surface cleanliness is critical to ensuring quality, durability, and functionality. Even the tiniest residues can compromise adhesion in key applications such as printing, gasketing, bonding, painting, or coating—potentially jeopardizing product performance and reliability.

Microscopic contaminants—often invisible to the naked eye—are present on nearly all surfaces and can severely compromise subsequent processing steps such as bonding, printing, painting, or coating. Plasma cleaning offers an effective solution by removing these ultra-fine impurities from metals, plastics, and inorganic materials without the need for additional chemicals. Unlike plasma coating or etching, plasma cleaning does not add or remove material from the surface; instead, it gently modifies the surface to improve its performance and readiness for further treatment.

Atmospheric plasma enables ultrafine surface cleaning by effectively removing organic, inorganic, and microbiological contaminants, as well as stubborn dust particles. This process is both highly efficient and exceptionally gentle on delicate surfaces. At elevated power levels, it can eliminate weak boundary layers, cross-link surface molecules, and even reduce tough metal oxides.

By significantly improving surface wettability and adhesion, plasma cleaning prepares materials for downstream processes such as bonding, gluing, coating, and painting. Using air or common industrial gases—such as hydrogen, nitrogen, or oxygen—the technology eliminates the need for wet chemicals and expensive vacuum systems, delivering advantages in cost, safety, and environmental sustainability. Its fast treatment speeds make it ideally suited for integration into a wide range of industrial applications.

During plasma treatment, surface contaminants are decomposed and transformed into vapor, leaving no residue behind and achieving an ultra-clean surface at the molecular level. Notably, this plasma cleaning process operates at atmospheric pressure.

Compared to conventional chemical treatments and vacuum plasma methods, it offers distinct advantages:

• Residue-free, ultra-fine cleaning
• Gentle on delicate surfaces
• Eliminates the need for wet chemicals
• Uses air or low-cost, non-toxic process gases
• Environmentally sustainable
• No expensive vacuum equipment required
• Fast processing speeds
• Seamless integration into existing production lines
• Enhances surface wettability and adhesion