Plasmatreat - BSH: High-gloss Polyproylen pretreatment before printing

BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH:
High-gloss Polyproylen pretreatment before printing

Photograh: Samo Uranjek
This Openair® plasma plant has treated the PP surfaces of
BSH immersion mixers before printing for ten years now.

The Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH - competence center for small motor-driven appliances is located in Nazarje, Slovenia. The rounded-off plastic handles of the immersion blenders which are produced here have been treated with Openair®- Plasma for over 10 years.

Application

More than 10 years ago BSH decided that the processed, expensive ABS plastics was to be replaced by an equally high-quality but lower-priced PP (polypropylene). The printability of PP is a difficult process which stipulates a pre-treatment of the substrate, in this case the activation of a non-polar surface.

The test series revealed that Plasmatreat’s Openair® plasma technology not only provided the best adhesion results of the pad printing color but ended up being also the only method to leave no visible traces on white and very bright polypropylene. Plasma pretreatment resulted in an immaculate print-image. Also, the plasma system had been developed for an automatic production process and could be easily implemented by the producer inline. When later black PP was introduced for the same product, BSH additionally purchased from Plasmatreat the RD1004 rotation plasma system which created the ideal appearance of the dark, high-gloss material.

Photograph: Samo Uranjek
The Openair® plasma treatment does not leave even the slightest visible trace on the glossy PP surfaces.

Since December 1999 the original Plasmatreat Openair® plasma unit has been in continuous operation. The system has been operating 24/7 during a 3-shift cycle without failure, and still with the same process safety and effectiveness as in the beginning. To date more than 10,500,000 immersion blenders have been pretreated with this plasma unit at BSH Nazarje.