In the medical device manufacturing industry, a wide range of materials are used. These materials have many useful properties which make them the materials of choice for certain projects. These can include high chemical resistance, temperature resistance, flexibility and many more.
While these properties are important if not essential in the finished product, they can create severe limitations when trying to achieve high bond strengths for adhesives and inks.
Many of these materials, namely Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Nylon 12 and other Polyolefins have low surface energy which prevent adhesives and inks from wetting out the surface properly and limits the bond strength onto these surfaces. ECT Adhesives offer a range of Corona and Plasma Treatment systems from 3DT to enable you to work with these materials.
Bond strength between adhesives and substrates relies on one specific property: surface energy or tension. Surface tension is measured in dyne/cm (mili N/m) and is the deciding factor on how well a liquid adheres to a surface.
For a proper bond to exist between a liquid and a surface, the substrate’s surface tension must exceed the liquid’s surface tension energy by 2-10 dyne/cm. The higher the surface tension of the substrate is in relation to the liquid, the better its ‘wettability’.
To test the surface energy of your substrates the quickest and easiest way is to use Dyne Pens.
We offer the industry leading range of medical grade adhesives from Panacol adhesives but even these adhesives need a little helping hand when bonding to some difficult surfaces. For a selector guide to our full range of medical grade adhesives please click here
To help get the best results when bonding to these surfaces we offer a range of Corona and Plasma treatment systems from 3DT to help you get the very best bonds.
For full details on how Corona and Plasma treatment systems work please click here
3DT TubeDyne™
Corona Treating System designed for outside corona treatment of medical tube ends
Learn more about this product here
3DT MultiDyne™
Corona treating system from for a wide variety of applications and substrates, particularly 3D parts.
Learn more about this product here
3DT PLASMA DYNE PRO™
Plasma treating system for a wide variety of applications and substrates
Learn more about this product here
Dyne test results on medical tubing before and after Corona treatment.
We are more than happy to demonstrate these products and show how we can help you get the best results from your bonding process.
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