As the marketplace grows from national to international, surface-treatment suppliers are discovering new challenges—and new opportunities."I think with the whole expanse of global competition in the last 10 years we've seen a big change, and it's been change for the good," says Tom Gilbertson, vice president, application engineering for Enercon Industries (Menomonee Falls, WI). "It's good for our customers, and it also opens up new marketplaces for us in different countries, that in the past may not have even used surface treating."

Along with the new markets come new challenges in the form of new combinations of materials customers decide they want to marry. Surface-treatment suppliers such as Enercon, which provides flame, corona and atmospheric plasma treaters, need to provide equipment with the flexibility to treat a variety of converters' materials.

"(The) industry now requires up to nine- or 10-layer lines to achieve end-product quality that was never seen before. Surface treaters now have to be designed to manage variations in material type, thickness and sensitivity never seen before," says Rob Hablewitz, sales manager at Pillar Technologies (Hartland, WI), a supplier of corona, flame and atmospheric plasma surface-treatment products.

Unfortunately for surface-treatment suppliers, new technologies are slow moving in their business. New products do not take hold as quickly as new substrates are being created. However, suppliers are keeping up by adjusting the technology they do have. For example, one company wanted to use plasma treatment for a material that was too thick to be treated with traditional roll-to-roll techniques. Enercon's engineering team responded with a modified version of their atmospheric plasma treater to handle the thick material. The system generates a "plasma-cloud" that the material passes through. "It's not necessarily a new product, but really an augmentation of the existing plasma treater as it related to a response that we got from a particular customer," Gilbertson says.

According to Hablewitz, the capabilities of today's machines have increased dramatically since the time when power supplies were unable to handle delicate substrates because they lacked adequate high frequency. "We see no end to the level of substrate variations and complexities," Hablewitz says.

Customers are constantly looking for equipment they can rely on to handle the challenges they face. Converters are dealing with rising resin prices, are moving away from inks that emit volatile organic compounds to water-based and ultraviolet inks, and are looking for modular systems to take care of these trends. There is also a movement afoot toward modularity of equipment that will allow fast changeover from conductive to non-conductive substrates.

"As manufacturers continually mix and match resins to achieve specific substrate properties, it is up to the surface-treatment equipment suppliers to provide equipment that can manage these variations," Hablewitz says. "Flexibility is the key to attain quality treatment at higher and higher speeds."

Of course, customers are still looking for ways to improve their ability to get a liquid to stick to a solid.

For many years, converters looking to get wet inks to stick have relied on corona treatment and still do. Not until recently have they been offered a choice of treatment processes. "The most exciting and relevant advances in surface-treatment technologies are in the areas of plasma processing and innovative nanotechnologies capable of adding value to material surfaces without affecting the bulk properties of the target substrate(s)," says Steven Yializis, mgr.-business development at Sigma Technologies Intl., Inc. (Tucson, AZ).

Sigma, which specializes in surface-treatment technologies that include vacuum and atmospheric plasma treaters, found that plasma treaters are able to handle difficult-to-treat, porous and fiber-based substrates. Plasma can also provide a treatment that is said to be longer lasting compared to corona treatment. It can also treat surfaces that a corona treater would be unable to.

However, a plasma treater's capital cost and maintenance are greater than that of a corona treater. Therefore, suppliers suggest converters start with the basic corona treatment before trying a more advanced process. "The application defines the technology," Gilbertson says. "And our customers continually ask us to develop treatment technologies that perform at levels that were unthinkable five years ago.

"(Corona treaters) are very simple to operate, and they do a fantastic job. So for applications where a corona treater is working, it doesn't make a lot of sense for the customer to change to plasma unless he's trying to accomplish something different or preparing for a future need."

Due to new technology like plasma meeting tough demands, customers continue to expect more from their surface treaters. "There is a trend toward more advance surface treatments that add value to end-use products that open doors to new application areas," Yializis says. Along with increased printability, converters are now demanding treatments that provide chemical resistance, UV protection and metal chelating, among many others.

"Traditionally, surface treatment in the converting industry was focused almost exclusively on preparation and activation of materials for downstream processing," Yializis says. "Today, manufacturers of materials and end-use products are looking for surface-treatment solutions that can add value to existing materials, increase margins and enable expansion into new markets. In some cases, the value added in the form of a surface treatment can surpass the intrinsic value of the material itself."

Another type of value-added feature some surface-treatment suppliers provide is equipment that is ready-to-use right out of the box.

Although initially more expensive, says Ron Semen, vp-sales for Corotec Corp. (Farmington, CT), a manufacturer of corona-treating equipment, the machine ends up costing less because the customer does not have to buy any more parts or risk making costly mistakes in order to make the machine suitable for their needs.

With the advancements in surface treating technologies, converters continue ask for low-cost equipment that increases printability on numerous materials and creates other uses for the material.

"You just have to continually be on your toes and watch carefully so that you can continue to compete and be productive in those areas," Gilbertson says.