ABSTRACT
Abstract-A novel atmospheric pressure plasma jet, that is operated with air, is used for the pretreatmet of different polymers. The resulting adhesive bond strengths and the corresponding changes of the polymer substrate surface are studied. The plasma treatment induces chemical and topographical changes on the polymer surface. It is likely that both types of surface modification contribute to the adhesion improvement. Results for poly(ethylene terephthalate) indicate that surface chemical composition is more influential in adhesion enhancement than surface roughness.
