On July 2 and 3, Plasmatreat celebrated the 30th anniversary of the patent application for its open-air plasma technology with the Plasmatreat Technology Days 2025 at its headquarters in Steinhagen. More than 200 guests, 16 industry partners and the international sales team were in attendance. The agenda included specialist lectures, workshops, presentations and a partner exhibition by 16 industry partners.
Presentations on plasma technology
Hans Beckhoff, Managing Owner of Beckhoff Automation, Dr. Joerg Ihde from Fraunhofer IFAM, Dr. Alexander Stoppa from Irlbacher, Peter Auerbeck from Grob-Werke and Gunnar Melles from tesa were involved in the design and presentation of the specialist lectures at the Plasmatreat Technology Center. The experts presented the latest trends in the development of new products from their companies and showed how they use Plasmatreat solutions. Beckhoff provided insights into innovations in automation, while Stoppa spoke about hardware designs for glass-based human-machine interfaces for harsh industrial environments. Auerbeck and Melles focused on battery production for e-mobility.
History of the company presented
Lukas Buske, who as a member of the Plasmatreat management board is responsible for sales and service as well as market segment development, reviewed the development history of open-air plasma technology based on the automotive industry. Since then, the company has developed a wide range of solutions in close cooperation with customers over three decades: from laboratory and standalone systems to the integration of systems into fully automated lines. Today, Plasmatreat technology is used in well over 100 applications in automotive and battery production alone.
Workshops with lots of practical experience
There were a total of eight workshops, for example on HydroPlasma, a world first from Plasmatreat. Distilled water is added to the plasma jet, which further increases the effectiveness of the plasma treatment. Using small metal plates contaminated with fingerprints, it was demonstrated that HydroPlasma can also be used to remove stubborn contaminants such as oils, salts and grease without wet chemistry.
Application focus on coatings
Another workshop showcased the PlasmaPlus technology PT-Bond. This can be used to apply wafer-thin coatings to materials by injecting gaseous precursors into the plasma jets in special plasma nozzles. The plasma enriched in this way then hits the surfaces previously treated with open-air plasma technology and selectively coats them with wafer-thin, transparent plasma-polymer layers. These can be adhesion promoter layers for structural bonding or corrosion protection, barrier and insulation layers. In the workshop, a thermoforming application was demonstrated in which sheet metal was coated with a wafer-thin protective layer - instead of film - to prevent the sheet metal from scratching.
Focus on corrosion protection
A separate workshop was dedicated to the topic of corrosion protection with "AntiCorr as a protective shield for surfaces". Here, a customer's battery tray made of die-cast and continuous cast aluminum was precision cleaned and coated with AntiCorr. A robot equipped with an open-air plasma nozzle and a PlasmaPlus nozzle was used for this purpose. The battery tray was thus effectively protected against infiltration corrosion with minimal use of precursors.
In use in many industries
The plasma technology developed by Plasmatreat has become indispensable in the electronics industry, in medical and aerospace technology, in packaging and battery production and in a number of other industrial sectors. With its agencies and around 320 employees, Plasmatreat has a global presence and is located close to its customers.