Surface treatment of textiles
The task
In the shape of seat covers, safety belts or sun protection awnings, to name but a few examples, industrial textiles are an indispensable part of everyday life. Almost every industry sectors relies on highly specialized textile materials as well. To continuously improve products and optimize production towards more cost-effective and environmentally friendly processes, the textile industry is constantly investigating new, innovative ideas.
SOFTAL has participated in a number of research projects investigating possible applications of plasma treatment in the textile sector. The main research focus was on the development of an alternative to the massive use of chemicals in textile processing. The results: Plasma treatment of textiles is a better alternative with identical results.
The huge effort for storage, usage, drying and disposal of chemicals is eliminated as corona treatment takes place within a closed, dry process. Even the comparatively elaborate ALDYNE™ process uses nothing more than a harmless process gas, which is simply a mix of Nitrogen and inert gases.
Our in-house research department will gladly share released reports and process descriptions.
Results
High wettability
Characteristics
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.
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.
Controlled treatment atmosphere
SOFTAL technology for surface treatment of textiles
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.
SOFTAL 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 of a global player.
