Delamination Issues: When Surfaces Refuse to Bond

Delamination is a growing challenge across advanced manufacturing sectors. As products get more complex, they bring together a wider range of materials—each with their own bonding behaviours and surface chemistries. These multi-material bonding scenarios require more than just adhesives—they require engineered surface compatibility.

Why Delamination Happens

Different materials don't always like each other. In electronics, medical devices, and packaging, you're often asked to bond metal to silicone, or plastics to metals. These material interfaces are naturally unstable.

One example we encountered involved a metal lid frame embedded with silicone domes, which then needed to adhere to an injection moulding compound. Getting these three incompatible materials to form a robust interface seemed impossible—until we implemented plasma cleaning for adhesion improvement.

Plasma as the Mediator

Plasma treatment enables stronger bonding by modifying the surface at the molecular level. It works like a chemical mediator—bridging incompatible surfaces to allow better adhesion. This isn't just about cleaning. It's about surface activation plasma treatment that encourages cohesive failure, not adhesive failure.

• Adhesive failure means surfaces simply pull apart. The interface remains clean, and the bond was weak.

  
  

• Cohesive failure is what you want. Material A tears into Material B. The bond holds so tightly that both sides sacrifice structure.

Break tests confirm the bond type. Clean breaks? Adhesive failure. Mixed-material breakage? You've got a strong bond.

Plasma Reduces Interface Risk

With plasma, the surface energy increases dramatically. This allows adhesive agents, overmoulds, or coatings to form chemical or physical bonds with otherwise resistant surfaces.

In peer-reviewed studies, silicone plasma treatment and polyimide pretreatment improved peel strength and reduced delamination incidence by more than 60%. That's the difference between a short-lived product and one that survives lifecycle testing.

For applications like overmoulding, plasma pretreatment for moulding stabilises adhesion and reduces rework. The process essentially engineers the surface to bond, not fail.

When to Use Plasma for Delamination Risk

Use plasma when:

• You're bonding dissimilar materials

• You see adhesive failure in break tests

• Products delaminate in post-mould inspections

• Adhesion varies between production batches

This is particularly relevant in:

• Smart packaging with layered films (improve adhesion in packaging)

• Medical devices with silicone seals

• MEMS and sensor components

Final Thought: It's About Interface Engineering

Plasma doesn't just make things clean. It makes them compatible through plasma surface modification.

If you're battling delamination or planning a process with mixed materials, get in touch. We’ll help you implement delamination solutions and reduce product failure with plasma before it affects your yield.