Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Can surface damage occur during aggressive plasma treatment?

Plasma treatment does not damage the material surface unless extreme and unreasonably powerful plasma is applied to the material. Plasma power input is computer controlled and applied proportionally to the speed during the ramp-up and ramp-down ensuring that overheating does not occur.

Q2: What temperatures can Plasmait machinery safely achieve?

Plasmait machinery can safely achieve temperatures well over 2500°C, if sustained by the processed material. The maximum temperature is limited by the melting point of the material. Annealing temperature is not generally a limitation in common applications. Energy conversion efficiency of plasma treatment generally increases with temperature, which makes plasma treatment suitable for high-temperature materials such as tungsten.

Q3: What is energy conversion efficiency of plasma heat treatment?

Energy conversion efficiency is a ratio between electrical power input into plasma and heat transferred to the processed material. Energy conversion efficiency of plasma heating is max 80%. This means that up to 80% of the electrical power conducted into plasma converts into heat in the processed material. As a comparison conventional heating usually achieves heat conversion rate of up to 50%.

Q4: What is the processing speed of Plasmait machinery?

Processing speed of plasma process depends primarily on application, material mass throughput and machine design.

The output of Plasmait machinery can be compared to the outputs of induction and resistive annealers. However, processing speed depends entirely on a specific application and the requirements of the production process.

As a rough guide, the output of typical Plasmait machinery can be compared to a 10 or 20-line conventional tube furnace. The process speed of Plasmait machinery is a function of surface contamination of the processed material.

Q5: What are the processing costs of Plasmait machinery?

Plasmait machinery has one of the lowest operations costs when compared to traditional continuous annealing processes. This is due to high energy conversion efficiency of the plasma process, and no heating-up/cooling down times. Energy saving is subject to application and process patterns and can be as high as 50% compared to a conventional furnace.

The consumption of inert gas is also lower than the consumption of gas in tube annealers. This is due to the fact that the plasma system utilities low-pressure purging environment. Controlled low pressure purging environment also minimizes the possibility of uncontrolled purging gas leakage.

Plasmait machinery has low maintenance cost. Production costs depend primarily on application and are as a rule lower than the production costs of alternative heat and surface treatment processes per unit of output.

Q6: What entails the maintenance of a Plasmait machine?

Maintenance of Plasmait machinery involves primarily maintenance of vacuum pumps. The parts that require regular maintenance are vacuum filters and oil in the vacuum pumps, electrical contacts and the inner tube in the plasma chamber. All of these are low-cost parts or consumables. The dirt that accumulates in the plasma chamber needs to be wiped off occasionally depending on the amount of dirt on the wire. The surface deposits and lubricants removed from the surface during plasma treatment are sucked from the plasma chamber with the vacuum system and exhausted via an exhaust pipe. The impact of plasma is concentrated only on processed material and does not impact any parts of the machine. The components of the transport system are not in contact with hot processed material. This drastically reduces (compared to conventional process/es) minimizes the wear on the transport system (pulleys, capstans).

Q7: Can regular maintenance be performed by the operators?

Yes, maintenance of plasma machine is performed by the operator that passed a basic maintenance course.

Q8: Where do the dirt, lubricants, soaps and other surface deposits end up, once they have been removed from the surface during plasma treatment?

Dirty deposits, soaps, lubricants and oxide layers break under the ion bombardment in the plasma chamber or evaporate at high temperature. The ashes are deposited on the bottom of the chamber or in the vacuum pump filters. Volatile components of the residues evaporate into the process gas and are exhausted through the exhaust pipe. The flow from the exhaust pipe is smaller than the exhaust generated from a car.

Q9: Can plasma treatment be used on very dirty or heavily oxidized wires?

Plasma treatment is not designed for processing/cleaning very dirty and rusty materials. For dirty applications a precleaning system is recommended to reduce the amount of dirty deposit, lubricants and soaps on the wire surface prior to plasma treatment.

Q10: Is it possible to manipulate the temperature of heat treatment during the operation?

Yes. The temperature or intensity of plasma treatment can be regulated via power input during the process. The power input is automatically adjusted in line with the changes in production speed (i.e. during acceleration and deceleration) to maintain homogeneous mechanical properties from start to the end of production. The mechanical properties of the processed material (tensile, elongation) can be accurately manipulated through power input.

Q11: How can the operator control mechanical properties of the finished product? What degree of wire softness can be achieved with plasma annealing?

Plasma treatment does not damage the material surface unless extreme and unreasonably powerful plasma is applied to the material. Plasma power input is computer controlled and applied proportionally to the speed during the ramp-up and ramp-down ensuring that overheating does not occur.

Q12: Is it possible to use plasma treatment for different materials and diameters?

Plasma treatment can be used for different applications, subject to its design and purpose for which it was built. Plasma machines allow for managing of production recipes. Each production recipe determines preset production parameters.

The operator can set the processing parameters manually. This is used for development and testing of new applications. The operator can save the production recipe for a new application into the HMI database for future use in production.

Q13: What skills and training are required for operation of plasma machines. Can Plasmait machinery be operated by an operator of a classic annealing plant?

The operator of plasma machine is usually required technician qualifications. Supervisor or production manager would commonly be engineers.

Basic Training is provided as part of installation and commissioning of any plasma machine. This will equip the operator for mastering the operation, maintenance and safety of the machine. A further advanced training course shall equip the operator with all aspects of machine operation and safety, advanced manipulation, new application testing, trouble-shooting and advanced maintenance.

Q14: What are the dimensions of Plasmait machinery ?

The size of PlasmaANNEALER depends on application, output and, above all, the cooling system. PlasmaANNEALER for copper or copper alloys can be between 3m and 10m long, depending on application, output and machine configuration. Vertical configuration reduces the length of the machine. PlasmaANNEALER for stainless steel or nickel alloys would range from 6m to 20m, depending on output and application. The type of cooling system can greatly influence the total length of the machine. Plasma surface treatment machines such as PlasmaCLEANER are usually shorter. Their lengths range between 1.5m to 5m depending on application.

Q15: What are the risks associated with plasma technology in wire manufacturing? What safety measures are incorporated in a plasma treatment machine?

The risks associated with plasma process are generally limited to high-voltage installations. Plasmait machinery has a triple safety measure to prevent a contact with high-voltage installations. A safety guard covers all the high-voltage installations. The process shuts-down automatically if the safety guard is opened or if one of two contacts with the wire is compromised. The machine also shuts down automatically in case of wire break or uncontrolled reduction in wire speed. Plasma emits high energy light such as the light emitted from welding. Further safety features are included in plasma machinery designed for hydrogen as purging gas. All Plasmait machinery has a CE or UL mark and comply to EU and North American safety standards.

Q16: How hot does Plasmait machinery get during the operation and what is heat emission into the environment?

Plasma module remains cold during the operation. PlasmaANNEALER is a contact-free device, which means that hot material does not conduct heat to the machine structure apart from minor heat radiation in the plasma chamber. The cooling section is covered with a guard for the safety of the operator.

Q17: Is it possible to test plasma heat treatment on different materials?

Yes. Plasmait has a testing facility in Austria. We perform customer trials for a wide range of applications that include annealing or cleaning of wire, tube, strip or profiles. Plasma treatment for batch applications is also available for testing. We have experience in plasma treatment on a broad range or materials including copper and copper alloys, gold and precious metals, steel, stainless steel, a range of nickel and aluminium alloys, titanium, tungsten, tantalum, molybdenum, nitinol, super-conductive materials and many other alloys.

Q18: Is scrap produced during the acceleration and deceleration? Can the processed material stop whilst Plasmait machinery is in operation?

The power of Plasmait machinery is controlled automatically during the acceleration and deceleration to maintain the mechanical properties of the finished wire. Plasmait machinery automatically reduces the power input to minimum when production stops. Plasmait machinery can be put on a standby during idle process mode.

Q19: What happens if the wire breaks during plasma treatment?

Plasma machine would automatically shut down as a result of loss of contact or detection of unexpected fluctuation of the process.