Surface Treatment for Inkjet Printing

Plasma & Corona Treatment to Optimise Print Quality and Durability

Wednesday 23 - Thursday 24 July, 2025

The Møller Institute, Cambridge, UK

COURSE FOCUS

This course looks at the surface pre-treatment processes, including plasma and corona treatment, used to prepare the substrate for inkjet printing, leading to enhanced adhesion, print quality and durability. The course is led by Peter van Steenacker from Tigres and Kevin McKell from Vetaphone.

The two most common physical surface treatments are plasma and corona (dielectric barrier discharge) systems. These use different types of discharge technology to generate a plasma used to modify the surface. Plasma and corona treatment can remove contamination, increase wettability by changing the surface chemistry and, especially with polymers, improve adhesion by modifying molecular structure.

Both surface treatments can be used on a variety of substrates, including polymers, metals and ceramics. They are non-contact processes that can be performed at ambient temperature and pressure, making them convenient and cost-effective, and do not require any additional chemicals. The advantages and disadvantages of each process will be discussed.

COURSE OUTLINE

Wednesday 23 July 2025

08:30 - 09:00 Registration

09:00 Course begins

Plasma treatment
Peter van Steenacker, TIGRES

  • Introduction to plasma treatment

    • What is a plasma?

    • The difference between plasma & corona

    • How plasma is relevant for the printing industry

    • What happens at the surface?

    • Mechanisms of adhesion

    • Surface reactions and influence on wettability

    • Test inks and contact angle measurement

    • Strengths and weaknesses of wettability measurement

    • How to optimise plasma treatment

  • Plasma treatment - contamination

    • Surface contamination

    • Effect of plasma on contamination

    • Chemical cleaning vs plasma cleaning

    • Measurement of organic contamination

  • Plasma treatment on different surfaces

    • Metal treatment

    • Lifetime of treatment

    • Wettability and adhesion on polymers

    • Wettability and adhesion on metals

    • Plasma treatment of glass

  • Plasma technology

    • Benefits of plasma treatment for printing

    • General setup of plasma systems

    • Example of a successful implementation

    • Plasma nozzles types, usage, treatment distance and treatment widths

    • Examples of plasma systems in use

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch

13:30 Session begins

  • Plasma coating examples

    • Plasma coating setup

    • Examples

  • Plasma sustainability and cost

    • History of plasma treatment and material substitution

    • The shift from solvent based inks to UV and water-based inks

    • Cleaning with plasma instead of solvents

    • Example: Cleaning of cans before printing

    • REACH and the banning of chemicals

    • Substitution of primers with plasma and cost comparison

    • Comparison of energy reduction with optimal plasma dose

Corona treatment
Kevin McKell, Vetaphone

Further course details to be confirmed

17:00 Session ends

17:00 - 18:00 Reception

Join us for beers, wines and good company!

Thursday 24 July 2025

09:00 Session begins

Corona treatment
Kevin McKell, Vetaphone

Further course details to be confirmed

12:30 Course ends

COURSE LEADERS

Peter van Steenacker, Sales Manager & Head of PlasmaXperience
TIGRES, Germany

Peter is a Sales Manager at TIGRES where he is also the Head of PlasmaXperience, the TIGRES platform for plasma know-how. He has been a sales manager since 1998 for plasma systems and has extensive experience with plasma nozzles (APPJ), DBD-Plasmasystems for 2D and 3D applications and vacuum plasma systems. Peter also has extensive experience in lecturing regarding plasma treatment.

Kevin McKell, Chief Sales Officer
Vetaphone, UK

Chief Sales Officer at Vetaphone AS, the pioneers of surface treatment technology and inventors of the corona process, Kevin is a well-known and highly respected figure in the industry where his knowledge and expertise have improved the performance of printing presses, laminators, coaters and other converting machinery that process filmic and other materials where surface adhesion poses a problem. Kevin is a mechanical engineer by training, with first-hand experience in design and manufacturing.

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