Topic: Naval and vehicle construction, solvent-free cleaning of metals, bonding metals, plasma pretreatment for plastic diffusion-resistant insulation, bonding plastics

Industrial applications: Plasmatreat’s Openair® plasma in shipbuilding and vehicle construction

Durable joints and coatings

In shipbuilding and automotive engineering different materials such as plastics, metals, foams or insulations are processed together. Not all materials can be well and durably joined together or coated without pre-treatment to improve bonding characteristics. Here Plasmatreat’s Openair® plasma technology pre-treatment provides an easily implemented and versatile process that fulfils the very different pre-treatment requirements of the various starting materials.

Plasmatreat’s Openair® plasma pretreatment for adhesively bonding cooling elements in vehicle construction	Use of Plasmatreat’s Openair® plasma in shipbuilding

Clean and efficient structural bonding

Modern refrigeration equipment in trucks today is adhesively bonded throughout in order to guarantee higher inherent strength and better durability of the joints at lower production costs. As a result the vehicle construction industry is one of the biggest customers for structural adhesives.

The requirements imposed on adhesive joints in this application are high and can only be met by reliable and reproducible pre-treatment. In this field Plasmatreat’s Openair® plasma successfully and economically replaces conventional pre-treatment such as mechanical scoring and activation with solvents, with a reliable and environmentally friendly alternative.

Plasmatreat’s plasma treatment not confined to treating only over small areas

Only internal treatment with Plasmatreat’s Openair® plasma over vast areas was able to make a special LNG supertanker really leakproof and make the launching ceremony possible. The natural gas carried in these tankers is liquefied at -163 °C and must not come into contact with the outer steel membrane of the tanker at any point, as otherwise the membrane would become brittle and shatter like glass. In order to achieve 100 % leakproofing the very stable sealing foils used for insulation are pre-treated using Plasmatreat’s Openair® plasma and adhesively bonded directly in situ when cladding the tank chambers. Another example of the diverse applications for the flexible and environmentally friendly Plasmatreat Openair® plasma technology.