Microfine cleaning and coating of polycarbonate headlight covers
In order to protect the headlamps from stone-chipping, polycarbonate (PC, PMMA) headlight lenses need to have high surface hardness. For this reason, headlamp surfaces are usually coated with scratch-proof, UV-cured paint (often using an acrylic polymer). These protective scratch-proof coatings offer up to 40 times more resistance against physical impact compared with uncoated lenses.
Microfine cleaning with Air Plasma prior to paint finishes
- The use of Air Plasma rotary jets enables efficient and gentle micro cleaning of polycarbonate headlight covers before coating them with paint finishes.
- Plasma cleaning removes particles (dust, pigments, etc.) still adhering to the surface after the injection molding process. At the same time, it ensures that the lens is electrostatically discharged.
- Anti-static blowers are no longer required.
- The specific and uniform surface tension achieved results in optimal distribution and uniform thickness of the subsequently applied coating layer. Air Plasma thus significantly decreases reject rates.
Long-term scratch-proof coating with the low-pressure plasma method
As an alternative to hard-coat painting, scratch-proof and long-term plasma coatings can be applied to the lenses. Applying these coatings using low-pressure plasma (i.e., a chamber plasma process) provides added durability to these hard surface coatings on polycarbonate. The low-pressure plasma causes functional chemical groups to become embedded into the surface, resulting in a more highly crosslinked coating. The low-pressure plasma treatment can improve surface hardness by as much as a factor of 100X for some popular materials.
Features of Plasma Coatings
- Nano-scale coatings
- Excellent optical characteristics
- More Stable
- Highly durable
- Easy-to-clean
- Surfaces are many times harder than glass
