What is surface activation?

Surface activation is the process of raising a material's surface energy so that liquids wet it and adhesives bond to it. Plasma achieves this by breaking bonds in the topmost molecular layers and introducing polar functional groups, which is why it is used on low-energy plastics such as PP, PE and PTFE before bonding, printing or coating. The effect diminishes over time as the surface relaxes, so treated parts are normally processed within hours.

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