Plasmatreat
Location News

Hannover/Steinhagen. PLASMATREAT was announced winner of the German INDUSTRY AWARD 2012 on Monday 23 April at the Hanover Fair, the world's most important industrial technology event, for its innovative PlasmaPlus® coating technology.

Photo: Huber-Verlag
Christian Buske (CEO of Plasmatreat GmbH), Prof. Dr. Bruno O. Braun (VDI President), Dr. Alexander Knospe (Head of Research & Development, Plasmatreat)

Christian Buske, CEO of Plasmatreat GmbH and of the Plasmatreat Group and Dr. Alexander Knospe, director of research and development, were on hand to receive the prestigious award at the “Night of Innovation” which is traditionally held on the first evening. The competition, under the patronage of the VDI (the German Association of Engineers) and now in its seventh year, received more entries than ever before. And since many of the submissions showed very considerable potential, the 30 members of the jury had no easy task selecting winners for the 14 different categories.

Photo: Huber-Verlag

With a project entitled “PlasmaPlus – Locally Selective Plasma Polymerisation under Atmospheric Pressure” Plasmatreat competed with over 500 other contenders. The eminent jury comprising university professors, researchers and technical journalists, chose Plasmatreat as winner of the “Production and Mechanical Engineering” category. VDI President Prof. Bruno O. Braun opened the award ceremony with a keynote speech emphasising the importance of the INDUSTRY AWARD in supporting strong industrial companies and appreciating the dedicated involvement of the participants.

Until recently the term “plasma polymerisation” described a coating process which could be carried out only under vacuum. Plasmatreat, in close collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM) in Bremen, has developed and patented the PlasmaPlus® process which for the first time enables a selective, functional nanocoating to be applied to material surfaces under normal atmospheric conditions.

PlasmaPlus® can be used on aluminium to obtain a greater degree of corrosion protection; on plastics to significantly enhance their diffusion characteristics; it can help create water, oxygen and CO2 barriers, scratch-resistant layers, dirt-repellent surfaces and it can even be used as an anti-adhesion layer in injection moulding processes. It can also be applied to glass and ceramics where it confers a wide variety of functions. In each case the PlasmaPlus® technology replaces chemical primers which are harmful to the environment.

“I am proud and delighted that we have been granted the INDUSTRY AWARD 2012” said Christian Buske. “The jury has recognised PlasmaPlus® as a key technology which has enormous future potential in addition to those industrial applications that have already been identified and I can promise that it will continue to attract a great deal of attention for many years to come.”