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US 4,684,535 AGranted
Surface treatment of plastics material
AssigneeStandard Telephones and Cables, PLC
InventorsRudolf A. H. Heinecke, Suresh M. Ojha, Ian P. Llewellyn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Discontinuities, e.g. scratches, in a plastics surface are removed by exposing the surface to a pulsed radio frequency plasma comprising a mixture of argon and hydrogen. After melting has been effected the surface is exposed to an argon plasma to effect cross-linking to form a smooth surface layer.
Claims10
A process for removing discontinuities from a plastics surface by fusion and cross-linking of the surface, the process comprising the steps of:
- exposing the plastics surfaces to a first pulsed radio frequency plasma comprising argon as the major constituent and up to 30 volume percent of hydrogen, the hydrogen content of the plasma being such that the melting point of the plastics surface is reduced whereby the plastics surface is rendered molten and thereby smoothed and exposed the molten plastics surface to a second pulsed radio frequency plasma comprising argon for a sufficient period of time to effect cross-linking of the molten surface, thereby increasing the melting point of the surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.