1. Plasma coating - Treating bottles (inside) without adding gasses, in order to obtain different physical properties/surface structure like Crosslinking, Sterilisation, Surface treatment for medical applications, bonding, etc. …
2. Plasma carbon deposition - This process is often used on PET bottles and increases the oxygen barrier to about 30 times. Water vapour and CO2 barrier are improved as well. Basically, the bottle is inserted in a reactor under deep vacuum and acetylene gas is injected. The molecules are split and create a carbon deposition (CH) on the surface, which is bonded to it. The carbon deposition is pretty inert and has a good chemical resistance. Applications are endless like Food, Cosmetics, Medical applications, etc. …
3. Plasma Fluor carbon deposition - This process is developed for HDPE containers. The inside is etched with argon in a first phase, to make sure the second step has a good adhesion. The following process step is a carbon deposition, using acetylene gas. In a third step we inject Freon R134a. This is decomposed into HCF molecules which are bonding to the inside surface as well. The result of this coating is game changing: a mono-layer bottle with this plasma coating performs better than the same multi-layer or fluorinated bottle! This process has been market trialled with one of the big Agrochemical players who will launch this on a worldwide scale next year. The process is subjected to patents and royalties will have to be paid. The difference in cost reduction is very high and often lines are paid back in less than 2 years. Applications are Non food, Agrochemical and Everywhere solvent barrier is needed.
