Onto™ Surface Modification

About

For people that create innovative engineered products and components, features such as light weight, durability and strength will be integral to product design. They are therefore likely to use advanced materials, which are well known for having high performance properties, to achieve a competitive advantage. Unfortunately the use of many of these materials is limited if the component must be painted, coated, or adhesive bonded to fulfil its function, particularly in volume manufacture. Many polymer-based materials like composites and engineering plastics are resistant to solvents and chemicals. This can be a barrier to material choices and a challenge in manufacturing. Either way the competitive advantage can be lost. The solution is, at first glance, simple – treat the surface of the material to modify the way it interacts with other materials to make it compatible for use. There are current ways of doing this, but they each have limitations in practicality and effectiveness: Physical treatments – by far the most common is mechanical abrasion, sanding, grinding or vapour blasting, but these are labour intensive and time consuming Plasma treatments – while used in high volume continuous process industries, it is often not practical for other industries and involves high capital expenditure Chemical surface treatments – effective but usual contains hazardous chemicals that can pose health risks to the production team and the end user of the product Following years of extensive research and development, we have created new and proven alternatives to these options. Onto™ is our unique patented technology which has been specifically designed to exploit the maximum potential of composites and engineering plastics. We have developed the technology to provide a practical approach to surface modification when other techniques are either not effective or are costly, time consuming or risk damage to the substrate. We work with our customers to understand their specific challenges and advise which of our OntoTM range of products provides the best solution. While our standard products meet most needs, if needed our team of highly skilled scientists can create a custom treatment. Our solutions: • Promote adhesion between a substrate and an adhesive to create a more robust bonded assembly. • Promote the adhesion of paints, lacquers and coatings to a substrate. • Onto™ chemistry contains no harmful solvents, and thus leaves no aromatic hydrocarbons and other similar chemicals. Onto is simple to use, requiring no specialist equipment. Onto is a simple, fast, repeatable process, with no risk of damage to the substrate.