Plasma treatments are a permanent and covalent substrate modification.  However many references note diminishing effects of plasma treatments with time.  One generalized conclusion is that the plasma modification is a temporary effect.  This conclusion is not inherently accurate or applicable to all plasma and material systems.  In truth there are many factors that govern the success and longevity of a plasma modification.  Research in plasma lacks harmonization in equipment, setup/configuration, and material selection.  These are key variables in a plasma modification.  Results from one method may not necessarily translate well to another experimental setup or class of material.  For this reason some engineering reviews of gas plasma do more to confound than to elucidate the scientific dialogue within industry.

Equipment design is of particular relevance in plasma industry.  This includes but is not limited to the electrode configuration, matching, RF frequency, and equipment geometry.  Many apparatus used in academia boast custom fabricated equipment or custom modification to existing tools.  Their equipment exemplifies engineering capabilities.  In my opinion the effectiveness of the equipment to a material system is specific and rarely generalizable to all materials or apparatus.

Plasma chemistry and substrate material should be matched correctly.  Some polymer systems may be either resistant or sensitive to specific plasma chemistry.  It is not enough to report gas, pressure, and power.   A complete characterization should understand the plasma stoichiometry and a hypothesis of the surface interaction.  Furthermore it must be accepted that many polymer systems are mobile, may swell with gas or moisture, or may undergo relaxation mechanisms.  Therefore be careful to consider pairing a material system with appropriate plasma source and plasma chemistry.

The current generation of consumers will eventually become displaced by the millennials.  Product development and marketing experts will be learning to cope with the new idiosyncrasies of ‘Generation Y’.  Firstly, many of these individuals do not form strong allegiances to brands.  Second, emotional connections appear to have the greatest dominance over consumer selection.  And finally, there is greater importance in first discovery.  The arising rules are reminiscent of a Japanese candy bar shelf; no consecutive month will display the same colors, cartoons, or shapes.  So what are some potential implications to the consumer manufacturing space?  Some trends are already becoming clear.

GenY Automation: versatile robotic platforms continue to be integral in production implementation.  Some of the new mechanization is more mobile, easily programmable, rapidly deployed, and cross disciplined in many different categories of operation.

GenY Materials: Whether olefin or bio-based, the custom polymer formulation could lose attractiveness.  Engineers could abandon the new design of materials with chemistry for more accessible technologies that alleviate material constraints with processing methods.

GenY Fabrication:  3D printing promises new and extremely custom fabrication that are uninhibited by classical machine tools or setup.  DIY design will empower individuals to create niche products for myriad markets.  And after this revolution 4D printing envisions the self-assembly of structures likened to proteins inside living bodies.

GenY Environment: Future consumers assert a greater demand for re-usability and a low environmental impact.  There is a less tolerance for waste in an ever shrinking planet with finite resource.

The manufacturing plants that are best adapted to the changing landscape will claim the lion’s share of consumer purchase.  The challenges will be non-trivial.  On the inside consumer products will require simple molecules that are biodegradable, easily formed, and bond-able.  And on the outside these products may take on radical forms, become regional fads, and short life-cycle.

Dear Reader:

Recently I visited the IMTS Show in Chicago’s McCormick Place, composed of its four very large exhibition halls. IMTS means International Machinery and Technolgy Show, North America’s largest machinery producer and supplier exhibition. Hosting exhibitors and visitors from 119 countries, IMTS 2012, which ran Sept. 10-15 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, covered 1.248 million net square feet of exhibit space with 1,909 exhibiting companies. Over 100,000 people attended the event. Very impressive indead. I remember this show from the early 2000’s when it had moved to the surburbs, Rosemont, IL, and it had trouble filling up a show area that was much smaller than McCormick Place. During my time at the show, a lot of people talked about “reshoring”, bringing production back to North America typically from Asia. The reasons for that seemed manifold but many of the concerns included increased supply chain costs, time for shipments, quality problems, communication difficulties based on language problems, concerns with Intellectual Property aspects, political uncertainties and many more.

Manufacturing in North America is experiencing a revival. Note this just 3 years ago, the Big Three automakers saw their factories running around 50 percent capacity. Now, it’s predicted they will be at greater than 100 percent capacity by year’s end. It’s uplifting news for the automotive industry, and manufacturing as a whole.

In a few days we are celebrating Manufacturing Day 2012 in the United States, another step to promote Manufacturing in our hemisphere: http://www.mfgday.com/event. It is a joyous occasion which will hopefully grow in popularity in the years to come. Check out a participating manufacturer near you and be impressed by modern manufacturing technology.

Still the problem we have in our country is that there is a lack of skilled workers. Since the 1970’s it has become the mantra that “only getting a college degree is the path to a successful career”. That is a failed plan. Less than 50% of freshman students graduate with a Bachelor degree, many of them incur large student debts which they have to pay back, degree or no degree. The latter of course excacerbates the individual situation. A failed college degree leaves the individual with a loss of time, a loss of money and little perspective where to go next in findng a decent paying job.

Learning a trade particularly in manufacturing is a great alternative. Yes, making things has a strong future. Creating value by making something will always be part of our society, part of what we do. Robots and automation have lowered costs and reduced mundane manual tasks in recent decades. That process will continue to increase productivity and lower operational costs. But skilled operators such as for CNC machining are currently in demand but will be in the years and decades ahead.

To compensate the shortfall that built up in prior decades there are many fledgling initiatives to address this problem. One example is the Center for Labor and Community Research in Chicago, IL (www.clcr.org). According to its Executive Director, Dan Swinney, the organization is working to rediscover, redefine and rebuild advanced manufacturing in the United States. Dan is pointng out that over 600,000 high-skill, high pay manufacturing jobs currently remain unfilled. There are pilot programs to alleviate this status. First CLCR initiated the Manufacturing Renaissance Council (MRC). MRC is a strategic, public/private partnership that operates regional programs in support of advanced manufacturing.  According to the MRC advanced manufacturing is the development and production of high-tech, complex products. An economy based on advanced manufacturing holds the greatest potential to create sustainable, long-term economic growth; rebuild the American middle class; and solve the global environmental crisis. CLCR, as one example, is working with Austin Polytechnical Academy (www.austinpolytech.org) to interest young students in learning industry-recognized machining credentials from NIMS (National Institute for Metalworking Skills). http://www.austinpolytech.org/apa-senior-torres-hughes-featured-huffington-post. Illinois based Elgin Community College is hosting their first Manufacturer’s Symposium on October 25 www.elgindevelopment.com/workforcedevelopment.  Furthermore according to the Daily Herald, the U.S. Department of Labor has awarded $12.9 million in federal funding to expand Harper College’s (HCC) new Advanced Manufacturing program to schools across Illinois (HCC, Palatine, IL) http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120920/business/709209820/print/.

The Germany Embassy and its consulates around the country have initiated CEO roundtables and efforts to attract companies, especially German companies in the USA in this case, to help train a new generation of highly skilled workers. http://www.gaccsouth.com/en/news/single-view/artikel/ceo-roundtable-for-carolinas-discusses-skilled-workforce-development/?cHash=7db5b5d5b9638db9efba303c33d3ee0d. According to the Embassy website ‘through the “Skills Initiative,” the German Embassy is bringing together German and American businesses and local education/training providers with the aim of developing training programs best suited to businesses’ needs. The embassy launched “Skills Initiative” to identify and spread best practices in sustainable workforce development in the USA.

My company Plasmatreat North America (Elgin, IL, Ancaster, ON, Belmont, CA)  is a strong advocate of “Made in the USA”. Our state-of-the-art equipment keeps production competitive, lowers costs, increases employee safety and is finally very positive for the environment as harmful and costly chemicals are replaced. For example Plasma Plus, a new innovation, just won the German Engineering price at the 2012 Hannover Fair, the largest industrial trade show in the world. http://www.plasmatreat.com/news/72_industry-award-2012_hanover-fair.html

Call me to discuss how we can help make American manufacturing great again.

Till next time,

Andy

Process Design Step 1:

Variables to consider when designing a surface modification program

I lied, partially.

I said that my next blog would be a trip report (sadly, Dyana said it was overcast) and power of plasma for modification of materials for the life sciences industry.   I’m not ready to jump into specific applications, rather want to start with some of the basics to a successful surface modification program.

I’ll start with Step 1.  Q&A.

The beginning of any lab development program typically involves a thorough Q&A session.   At the minimum, I want to know:

1.  Substrate

2.  Product environment

3.  Desired surface performance goal

The success, based on my experience, of a surface modification program relies on a thorough (if possible) understanding of these three items as 1 and 2 greatly impact 3.

For each question, there are 10s if not 100s of sub-questions that can shift outcome considerably.   I spoke about some of these recently at Hantel Technology  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZemVc790oQ  and am summarizing a partial list of variables for each question below.

1. SUBSTRATE.  Tell me about (I’m polymer focused):
1. Resin selection/Metal properties
2. Composite properties
3. Manufacturing practice (molded, extruded, cast).  Are you starting with a machined part for R&D and then possibly considering molding for production.  We may talk about molecular weight distribution as well.
4. Cure mechanism
5. Cure temperatures
6. Hardness (durometer)/crystallinity
7. Topography
8. Tacticity
9. Additives (stabilizers, pigments, nucleating agents, plasticizers, etc)
10. Propensity for migration of additives
11. Propensity for molecular rotation
12. Finishes
13. Mold release materials
14. Machining debris
15. Moisture retain/absorption/adsorption
16. Cleanliness (and how is the substrate cleaned prior to plasma)
17. Manufacturing controls for said substrate
18. Throughput targets

2. ENVIRONMENT.  Once treated, please tell me about the next steps in processing and environment as these variables may impact surface performance and stability:
1. See Item #1.9 above.  Bloom, migration of Internal impurities
2. Adhesive technique (if bonding) and cure mechanism
3. Potential for oxidation
4. Chemical exposure
5. Sterilization technique
6. Subsequent assembly step (are you heat sealing?)
7. Subsequent cleaning steps and techniques (are you IPA wiping part 100X times during assembly?)
8. Handling (glove selection and practices)
9. Storage (Packaging materials, Temperatures)

3. SURFACE PROPERTIES.  What do you want as we have many variables to consider to provide the desired outcome.  Rather than listing the myriad of applications we practice, I’ll focus on variables that we consider in designing an experimental plan.

1. Type of equipment (Corona, Atmospheric, Low Pressure)
2. Steps and type of process (Cleaning, Etching, Activation, Functionalization, PECVD, Grafting, Crosslinking)
3. Chemistry (gas, liquid vapor, sublimated solids, combinations).
4.  Temperature of substrate, chamber, liquid/solid
5. Pressure (flow driven, throttled, pumping capacity)
6. Fixturing and fixture materials (does it contribute to dark space?)
7. Power (continuous, pulsed, duty cycle, frequency)
8. Time (3o seconds or 10 minutes)

BUT WAIT.  There is more!

VALIDATION TECHNIQUE/SURFACE ANALYSIS

Even the choice of how to validate the surface can impact the results.  Our chief technologist, Steve Kaplan, loves to say “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”   It is not unusual for a customer to overlook the success of the process by improper selection of the validation method.    Test the product in the ultimate application.  Techniques used and considered at our laboratories include:

• Surface energy testing
• Dyne-cm, contact angle
• fluid choice
• Adhesion testing
• Wear and abrasion testing
• Friction testing
• Hardness testing
• Surface analysis
• X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)
• Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
• AFM Atomic Force Microscopy
• Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)
• Chemical resistance
• Gas permeation / vapor barrier testing

This list isn’t to overwhelm.   I don’t expect answers to all of these questions nor do we screen every possible combination of variables.  We know where to start if you can provide us with the basics about  1 (Substrate), 2 (Environment of use) and 3 (Desired surface performance) so that we can design efficiently and effectively the best surface for your application.

Next blog…no promises.

America and Canada are a truly great countries. Both regions are characterized by truly freedom loving people, both feature strong democracies despite the daily stalemates and political quabbles.  While their economies in general are powerful and have created some of the largest wealth per capita in the world, the recent 10-15 years have been marked by, in my view, myopic activities in industry: Manufacturing was given up on. With China achieving first “most favored nation status” and then later gaining access to the WTO, thus allowing for tax and duty favored imports, many manufacturing companies started to believe that they could not compete with China as well as other countries in the SE Asia region with their low wages and other low operating costs. Comprehensive new supply chain systems were set up, new operating and trading relationships were established, more and more company managers became ex-patriates. Some companies that wanted to continue producing product in North America were forced by large retailers such as WalMart to move their operations to a China location. The common crede became: Operating our production in China is the better way, there is no such future in North America.  

I disagreed from the Get-Go. I always believed that America needs manufacturing. One needs to build things to create value. Our countries cannot simply be service and consumption oriented societies. We saw what happened if when relied on the finance/banking sector alone. It created huge wealth only for a very few and when it all went wrong, we were all asked to pay the bill.

Manufacturing creates jobs at all levels, stimulates personal and professional creativity, helps shape products and processes and let us focus on the future by taking direct control. Plasmatreat works with manufacturers all over the world creating better and more productive operating environments. Here in Canada and the USA we have the potential to reclaim a top spot in the global arena of manufacturers. Designing and building product creates not only possibilities domestically but also sets the stage for successful exports. The USA in particular has been suffering from a negative trade deficit for several decades now. We need to think about reversing the flow of dollars into America not away from America. We need to support the Reindustrialization of America – we need to believe again in manufacturing. Plasmatreat together with our many industrial partners continuously are presenting ideas how to create competitive operating environments right here in North America. Our projects reach into various markets such as Solar, Medical, Packaging, Automotive and Electronics. We look foward to mastering the challenge to compete with low cost production countries, but we believe we can. Do you, too?

Till next time,

Andy