Plasma processes for wide fabric, film and non-wovens

To many people, plasma is a laboratory curiosity or limited in scale. Few know that plasma is a commercial process used daily in the treatment of fabrics, non-woven webs and film. This paper reviews applications and processes used to modify materials up to 60 in. in width in a roll-to-roll plasma system. The applications are quite varied. Sometimes, the process is simply to change the surface energy, while at other times, far more sophisticated processes, such as plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) processes, are employed to provide a chemical barrier or alter the tribological properties. As will be seen in this review presentation, plasma is extremely versatile and applicable to high-volume web applications. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.