Reducing our customers' carbon footprint with innovative nano-coatings
Our PECVD technology replaces wet coating processes which are often harmful to the environment and require far more energy than plasma nano-coating. We can help you calculate how your company could reduce its carbon footprint with Europlasma coating solutions.
Wearables and Electronics
Our ultra-thin coatings add permanent water repellent (hydrophobic) and oil repellent (oleophobic) properties to the coated surface without changing colour, and without affecting the performance of the device. We now introduce PlasmaGuard, the first PECVD 100% halogen-free conformal coating. All PlasmaGuard coatings are not only PFOA and PFOS free but they are also free from any fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine or other halogens. However this is not where the good news ends: PlasmaGuard E is also an even stronger barrier coating, outperforming not only other nano-coating barriers commercially available, but also other types of conformal coating like acrylic, epoxy, silicone or even parylene.
Find out more at our dedicated PlasmaGuard website
Find out more at our dedicated PlasmaGuard website
Medical
Europlasma has decades of experience in providing equipment for the medical industry.
With our state of the art PECVD machines we provide solutions for the fine cleaning and activation of surfaces and both hydrophobic and hydrophilic nano-coating.
Activation and ultra-fine cleaning of catheters guide wires and all type of medical plastics
The Europlasma PECVD process can be used for the fine cleaning of medical plastics and metals used in stents, implants and contact lenses.
The application guarantees a clean and cost-effective overall process. Because of the high energy level of the plasma, it can selectively break open the structure of chemical or organic substances on the surface of the material. Using ultrafine cleaning, undesirable substances can be completely removed from even sensitive surfaces. This results in the optimal prerequisite for medical use or later coating.
Micro-fine plasma cleaning removes even the smallest dust particles from plastics, which at first adhere firmly to the surface because of the additives. The plasma causes the particles to detach completely from the substrate. By using the chemical-physical reaction in the nano range, high-quality, surfaces are achieved.
Medical coatings
Europlasma specialises in two types of coatings for the medical industry: hydrophilic coatings and hydrophobic:
Hydrophilic coatings are used to reduce friction because of their excellent lubricity, mow friction or stiction on catheters, guide wires, stents, etc But they also can act as an outstanding biocompatibility coating. Our hydrophilic coating is used on textile to wrap organs for transplants to implants against rejection.
Europlasma’s hydrophobic coatings are unmatched for their water-repelling, antifouling, anticorrosion effects. We have barrier coatings that outperform parylene and they are now fully halogen (so also fluorine) free!
With our state of the art PECVD machines we provide solutions for the fine cleaning and activation of surfaces and both hydrophobic and hydrophilic nano-coating.
Activation and ultra-fine cleaning of catheters guide wires and all type of medical plastics
The Europlasma PECVD process can be used for the fine cleaning of medical plastics and metals used in stents, implants and contact lenses.
The application guarantees a clean and cost-effective overall process. Because of the high energy level of the plasma, it can selectively break open the structure of chemical or organic substances on the surface of the material. Using ultrafine cleaning, undesirable substances can be completely removed from even sensitive surfaces. This results in the optimal prerequisite for medical use or later coating.
Micro-fine plasma cleaning removes even the smallest dust particles from plastics, which at first adhere firmly to the surface because of the additives. The plasma causes the particles to detach completely from the substrate. By using the chemical-physical reaction in the nano range, high-quality, surfaces are achieved.
Medical coatings
Europlasma specialises in two types of coatings for the medical industry: hydrophilic coatings and hydrophobic:
Hydrophilic coatings are used to reduce friction because of their excellent lubricity, mow friction or stiction on catheters, guide wires, stents, etc But they also can act as an outstanding biocompatibility coating. Our hydrophilic coating is used on textile to wrap organs for transplants to implants against rejection.
Europlasma’s hydrophobic coatings are unmatched for their water-repelling, antifouling, anticorrosion effects. We have barrier coatings that outperform parylene and they are now fully halogen (so also fluorine) free!
Filtration and Nonwovens
|
Europlasma has helped a growing number of industrial groups to gain competitive advantage from the functionalities that nanocoatings add to their products.
Some of the typical applications include:
Most filters clean the air/water/gas (depending on the type of filter) by passing it through a filter media that removes particles like dirt and dust effectively acting as a sieve to capture particles in the filter media as air flows through it. In order to reach the higher filtration levels needed to filter smaller particles (bacteria, viruses, pollen etc) high levels of oil repellency (oleophobicity) and water repellency (hydrophobicity) are needed.
Downsides of the conventional coating technology
Today, the most conventional coating process to obtain oleo-and hydrophobicity is dip coating: the material to be coated is submersed in a chemical solution that sticks to the surface. But dip coating requires high volume of chemicals which poses important environmental concerns. There is also a requirement for additional heat treatment or curing steps which further increase energy consumption, and use of crosslinking, chlorides, formaldehyde and other toxic agents.
For a company, handling or managing hazardous substances adds extra-cost such as the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste, the maintenance of worker safety and the stringent management of EU regulation for waste disposal. For these companies, there is an important need to decrease the use of chemical substances that can have a risk to health or the environment.
With new advances in filter media development, new nonwoven filtering materials combining polymeric nanofibers with nonwovens have emerged on the market. They offer unprecedented levels of filtration capacity and are replacing all filtering materials on the market. The problem is that, for these new surfaces, the use of dip coating is not any more appropriate as the chemical coating will not penetrate well throughout the thickness of the material and will affect/block the pore structure decreasing filters breathability. With this technical advancement, new methods of nonwoven filter coating are required.
The Europlasma Difference
Using its proprietary PECVD technology Europlasma is able to treat all types of nonwovens to make them very hydro and oleophobic.
In filtration media, the Europlasma nano-coating increases oleophobicity and hydrophobicity without affecting the material's properties or pore size distribution and thus airflow, leading to the industry leading
Crucially this allow for a much higher filter efficiency using less fabric and combined with the nanometer thickness this leads to industry leading filter efficiencies without affecting the pressure drop at all!
Environmental benefits
Europlasma's technology, also very is low-energy, solvent-free and uses only very small quantities of protective monomer, resulting in minimal waste and no adverse impact on the environment. On top of this as the nano-coating is applied within a vacuum chamber, there is no release to the environment during processing and, since the nano-coating is molecularly bonded to the product, there is no wash off, leachables or extractables.
Together this leads to very significant environmental benefits including
Other benefits
Europlasma nanocoating has also been shown to significantly improve cake release (the substances retained on a filter), reducing down-time, shortening batch times and generally improving performance. Europlasma allow for filtration media to be charged with greater efficiency, either by corona or hydro charging methods to create the most efficient air-filtration electrets.
Europlasma coating has helped our clients on how to make the most efficient face masks, HEPA filters, automotive cabin filters and many more.
Some of the typical applications include:
- nonwovens and meltblown
- nanofiber membranes,
- ePTFE membranes,
- technical mesh and fabrics
Most filters clean the air/water/gas (depending on the type of filter) by passing it through a filter media that removes particles like dirt and dust effectively acting as a sieve to capture particles in the filter media as air flows through it. In order to reach the higher filtration levels needed to filter smaller particles (bacteria, viruses, pollen etc) high levels of oil repellency (oleophobicity) and water repellency (hydrophobicity) are needed.
Downsides of the conventional coating technology
Today, the most conventional coating process to obtain oleo-and hydrophobicity is dip coating: the material to be coated is submersed in a chemical solution that sticks to the surface. But dip coating requires high volume of chemicals which poses important environmental concerns. There is also a requirement for additional heat treatment or curing steps which further increase energy consumption, and use of crosslinking, chlorides, formaldehyde and other toxic agents.
For a company, handling or managing hazardous substances adds extra-cost such as the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste, the maintenance of worker safety and the stringent management of EU regulation for waste disposal. For these companies, there is an important need to decrease the use of chemical substances that can have a risk to health or the environment.
With new advances in filter media development, new nonwoven filtering materials combining polymeric nanofibers with nonwovens have emerged on the market. They offer unprecedented levels of filtration capacity and are replacing all filtering materials on the market. The problem is that, for these new surfaces, the use of dip coating is not any more appropriate as the chemical coating will not penetrate well throughout the thickness of the material and will affect/block the pore structure decreasing filters breathability. With this technical advancement, new methods of nonwoven filter coating are required.
The Europlasma Difference
Using its proprietary PECVD technology Europlasma is able to treat all types of nonwovens to make them very hydro and oleophobic.
In filtration media, the Europlasma nano-coating increases oleophobicity and hydrophobicity without affecting the material's properties or pore size distribution and thus airflow, leading to the industry leading
Crucially this allow for a much higher filter efficiency using less fabric and combined with the nanometer thickness this leads to industry leading filter efficiencies without affecting the pressure drop at all!
Environmental benefits
Europlasma's technology, also very is low-energy, solvent-free and uses only very small quantities of protective monomer, resulting in minimal waste and no adverse impact on the environment. On top of this as the nano-coating is applied within a vacuum chamber, there is no release to the environment during processing and, since the nano-coating is molecularly bonded to the product, there is no wash off, leachables or extractables.
Together this leads to very significant environmental benefits including
- reduction of 80% in consumption of coating chemicals, because the coating applied to reach functionality is much thinner;
- 100% reduction in water consumption because the plasma process is completely dry;
- 50% reduction in energy consumption because no curing steps are required to dry out the process water.
Other benefits
Europlasma nanocoating has also been shown to significantly improve cake release (the substances retained on a filter), reducing down-time, shortening batch times and generally improving performance. Europlasma allow for filtration media to be charged with greater efficiency, either by corona or hydro charging methods to create the most efficient air-filtration electrets.
Europlasma coating has helped our clients on how to make the most efficient face masks, HEPA filters, automotive cabin filters and many more.