Method of wetting low surface energy substrate and a system therefor

Abstract

There is provided a method of wetting a low surface energy substrate with a high surface tension liquid comprising at least the steps of providing a low surface energy substrate having a surface energy in the range of from 15 to 45 mN/m, a high surface tension liquid having a surface tension in the range of from greater than 25 to 70 mN/m and a low surface tension fluid having a surface tension in the range of from 10 to 25 mN/m; contacting the low surface energy substrate with the high surface tension liquid; contacting at least one of the low surface energy substrate and the high surface tension liquid with the low surface tension fluid vapour, either before, at the same time as or after the contacting of the low surface energy substrate with the high surface tension liquid; and removing the low surface tension fluid vapour from the low surface energy substrate. The high surface tension liquid can be used as a carrier liquid for a coating material, such as an ion exchange material, to be deposited on the substrate, such as ePTFE, in a method of coating. Also disclosed is a system for such coating methods.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.