Converting surface treatment
The task
Converters convert plastic films and other materials to a final product. Converting includes processes such as printing, laminating and perforating of films. A typical example is the production of a tailor-made food packaging films.
Most plastic film producers subject their films to a plasma surface treatment right after production. Because the treatment effect decreases over time, the surface energy of the film is often insufficient for perfect results by the time the film has arrived at the moment of conversion. In this case, converters apply a so-called refresher corona treatment to the material. This improves surface energy, increase wettability and enables the converter to achieve the best possible results.
This so-called refresher treatment improves surface energy, increases wettability and enables the converter to achieve the best possible end result. Surface energy thus becomes a quantity that the converter can influence.
Increasing demands on flexibility and throughput of their production facility as well as constantly changing material characteristics are major challenges for the converting industry. With the necessary software and hardware and decades of experience at our disposal, SOFTAL rises up to new challenges. Letting us worry about corona and refresher treatment gives you the ease of mind and time to concentrate on your core business.
Results
SOFTAL quality
Low operating cost
Adhesion guaranteed
We are proud of our growing global customer base that includes manufacturers of film production lines, finishers, film producers and research companies.
Naturally, the portfolio of products offered by SOFTAL is just as multi-faceted as our customer base. This is made possible by the modular design of our treatment systems, which allows customer-specific changes and a rapid development of new systems and processes. This ideal starting point allows us to meet customer demands and achieve results. Guaranteed.
Install and forget
SOFTAL has been part of the corona and plasma industry for more than half a century. Our engineers and developers know, what really matters at the end of the production day. Factors like easy maintenance and service, low operating cost, long life and the optimum in operator safety are considered early in the development process to ensure maximum user-friendliness and up-time.
Customer-specific interfaces and solutions
The numerous hardware and software solutions offered by our treatment systems ensure seamless integration into customer-specific systems and processes. Starting from proven standard components, our systems can be modified to suit any material and/or process. We specialize in the surface treatment of your materials – so you can concentrate on your core business.
Material types
There are materials that require an extremely high-powered plasma discharge to achieve the desired effect, others are so sensitive to electric discharges that they would be destroyed, even in a standard low-power plasma discharge.
There is a solution for every material- just ask us.
Refresh treatment
Most plastic film producers subject their films to a plasma surface treatment right after production. Because the treatment effect decreases over time, the surface energy of the film is often insufficient for perfect results by the time the film has arrived at the moment of conversion. In this case, converters apply a so-called refresher corona treatment to the material. This improves surface energy, increase wettability and enables the converter to achieve the best possible results.
The environmentally friendly alternative
Plasma treatment is the better alternative to wet chemical primers! The high costs for storage and disposal of chemicals are eliminated as well as the high energy and time consumption of the process steps for primer application and drying.
SOFTAL technologies for converting surface treatment
Corona
Material surfaces are treated with the plasma generated by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) to increase their surface energy. An increase in surface energy leads to an increase in the adhesive forces exerted by the surface, which is a major advantage for printing, laminating and other processes. This effect is therefore used frequently in the production and converting of plastic films and other substrates.
Plasma
So-called plasma treatment technology is based on the same principle as corona treatment systems. However, in a plasma treatment system, the discharge is ignited within an atmosphere of pure Nitrogen. This gives the user better control of the process gas atmosphere and treatment results.
Linear Plasma
Linear Plasma is a further development of the Plasma Jet technology and suitable for treatment of large surface areas. As no counter-electrode outside of the electrode housing is required, this technology is suitable for materials of virtually unlimited thickness. Another important feature of Linear Plasma is the ability to generate a potential-free plasma, which is usable on even the most sensitive materials that would otherwise be destroyed by a plasma discharge.
ALDYNE™
In an ALDYNE™ system, the plasma is ignited within an exactly controlled process gas atmosphere. The composition of the process gas can be adjusted, until the process gas atmosphere and plasma discharge fit the requirements of the related material perfectly. Often used in combination with our patented liquid-cooled electrodes, ALDYNE™ offers extreme results on extreme materials.
Corona stations
The portfolio of products offered by SOFTAL is as diverse as the possible applications of corona technology. Our corona and plasma systems are always based on our tried and tested standard components, but specifically chosen and adopted to meet the demands of your materials and processes.
Corona generators
SOFTAL corona generators are, of course, just as adaptive as our corona stations. It goes without saying that the products of a company that has been successful in the market for decades offer the ease-of-use, robustness, low maintenance and service costs and numerous small and large solutions for smooth everyday production work that you expect form a global player.
