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Vacuum Plasma

Vacuum Plasma is a power tool for priming and preparing surfaces for manufacturing. The technology does three key things:

1. Plasma Cleaning by removing organic contamination such as oils and finger print greases

2. Increasing surface energy through surface treatment and activation.

3. Adding new chemistry and functional groups to the material surface to tailor performance.

All of these actions play their part in improving the material when it comes to adhesion processes like adhesive bonding, printing, coating or liquid wetting on the surface.

A highly versatile technology, vacuum plasma comes in a range of standard and custom built machines to suit many production environments. Read on to learn more.

The Vacuum Plasma Process

A Vacuum Plasma system is made up of a power generator and control system that create energetic plasma within a thick walled chamber that turns on when the pressure is around 1/1000th of the air we normally breath.

At this low pressure we have very few molecules and because of this we can energise them all. Creating a similar plasma at normal pressure would need a significant amount more power and be very hot, but under vacuum it is a highly controlled and gentle plasma treatment that is very useful.

The key goal of the vacuum plasma process is the allow plasma treatment to fill the entire chamber which means that anything exposed within the chamber is being treated. This is true for simple flat parts and for complex large moulded or 3D printed parts.

Treatment of the entire part within a Vacuum Plasma machine means there’s no need for extensive tooling or jigs, mixing parts doesn’t mean changes in parameters or set up and operator instructions are simple and robust.

A typical cycle will be like this:

Close the door and press go – the machine will start to remove air from the chamber and take the pressure right down to under 5mbar in most cases. This usually takes 1-3minutes.
When the pressure gets to the programmed level, power will be applied and a glowing plasma will be formed everywhere in the chamber. This normally runs for 30s – 120s.
After a programmed time, the power will turn off and air will flood the chamber bringing it back to normal pressure. Usually no more than 20s to do this bit.
The door can be opened and parts removed and reloaded to start again. Most processes are 3min to 5min with loading and unloading.

Our Vacuum Plasma Systems

Tantec UK & Ireland offer a range of highly innovative vacuum plasma treatment systems. We supply either standard models such as VacuTEC 2020 and 5050 or bespoke solutions designed to meet our customers needs which include design elements such as specific sizes and jigs, integration into automation or part moving systems and automated doors and/or through doors for process flow or movement between cleanroom and non cleanroom environments.

VacuTEC - Custom

Tantec UK & Ireland’s flagship vacuum plasma system – named VacuTEC – is a bespoke version of our VacuTEC series, designed and built in-house and tailored to the needs of each customer. These innovative plasma treatment systems, which range from mid-sized units for small components to large systems treating big, individual products, are available with a wide variety of options, from number of shelves, number of doors, automation, integration in to other systems, speed of processing and many more.

They’re popular with customers due to the simplicity of operation, reliability in production and fast-process speed. Our versatile machines can be integrated into robot-loaded, fully automated cells, manual loading of individual components such as large injection moulded parts, or quick loading of jigs for smaller components already being handled for other processes such as paint spraying.

There are many options with these machines, speak with us today to see if a custom machine is right for you.

VacuTEC 5050, 8080 and 100100

The medium, large and very large standard production machines, VacuTEC 5050, 8080 and 100100 certainly pack some incredible performance. Available in either standard form or a semi custom-design, they offer very fast treatment and optimum adhesion properties for downstream coating, gluing, painting and printing applications.

These systems as standard are fitted with removable shelves for ease of use, while the chambers can be filled with larger parts on a single shelf or smaller components across two shelves, the chambers can accommodate 50cm x 50cm and 80cm x 80cm and finally 100cm by 100cm trays and are available with faster lead times than custom design and build systems.

RotoVAC

Often provided as a bespoke system similar to the VacuTEC, our RotoVAC machines are designed for the vacuum plasma treatment of small parts such as o-rings, connectors or powders. The innovative combination of a rotating drum and a vacuum chamber is ideal for treating small components without the need to place them in a jig or use complicated handling systems.

RotoVAC’s processes with powders and pellets are incredibly interesting, often generating more complex reactions within the chamber than those initiated from the usual surface treatment only. Extra gases and injected liquids can create tailored chemical functional groups and surface properties.

VacuTEC 2020

The smallest full production system we make as standard, there’s no doubt that there is more to the VacuTEC 2020 than meets the eye. It features the use of multiple gases, rapid processing times and all the features of the larger systems.

This innovative vacuum plasma treatment system is often used for research during product development ahead of full production in a larger machine. Although it is used well for smaller components, especially when two systems are used together to feed multiple production lines, rather than a single large central system.

VacuLAB

The VacuLAB is a fantastic, compact version of our full-scale VacuTEC unit. Easy to move and quick to set-up, the VacuLAB can be used for production but most often finds its home in research centres, universities and labs where it’s used to replicate the treatment of full scale production systems for smaller scale testing such as lap shear testing or material swatches for painting.

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