Assessment of atmospheric plasma treatment cleaning effect on steel surfaces Articles uri icon

publication date

  • December 2013

start page

  • 450

end page

  • 456

volume

  • 236

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0257-8972

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1879-3347

abstract

  • The present study deals with the ability of an atmospheric pressure air plasma torch (APPT) treatment to remove lubricant pollutants coming from machining processes on steel surfaces. This effect has been characterized by contact angle measurements, gravimetric analysis and reflection absorption infrared reflectance spectroscopy (RAIR-FTIR). Attending to the initial results of the investigation, further surface analysis has been done by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In order to define the benefits of cleaning for adhesive bonding processes, pull-off tests were performed on all the coupons. Experimental data show the effectiveness of APPT to achieve not only a high rate of surface lubricant layer elimination, thus cleaning the metal samples by means of a solvent free and fast treatment, but also a remarkable improvement on the substrate adhesive bonding strength.

keywords

  • atmospheric pressure plasma; surface energy; metal surface cleaning; xps analysis; adhesion