Atmosferic Plasma to Treat Polypropylene

No, probably not.

There may be lab models, but they're probably too expensive, too.

Where have you looked?

Have you talked to and equipment suppliers to see what's out there?

Note: atmospheric.

Not likely.

Plasma cutters are designed to provide an intense and highly focused plasma arc. So in your case you would need to channel the plasma into a system to surround the tubes, as well as providing a ground point to carry the arc to. By the time you figured it out, made it and factored in the cost of custom made consumables I imagine a natural gas flamer would be pretty attractive. What's the matter with your existing system?

the issue with the current flame method is the man labour time, that is too high and the products are not in equal quality. It relies too much in the operator that do the job, so that is the reason why we are looking for another solution.

Could you define why that is?

I'm somewhat familiar with the plastic bottle industry and the flamers they use there for example; these would seem to be ideally suited to your process as the tubes could be arranged to feed through automatically with a simple feed/ takeoff conveyor setup. This would allow you to have a standard throughput rate that should reduce operator attention and improve consistency.

What I'm getting at is that a flame is simpler to direct and more controllable for heat input than a plasma cloud for non standard use (I have both torches and a plasma cutter). The problem you're describing appears more related to how you're doing the process than what the process is IMHO. Either way, I can tell you that fudging something up from a plasma cutter sure won't improve quality! If that's what's needed, you might just have to shell out some cash.

Could you define what you consider "expensive"? I have seen an open air plasma machine for about $10k.

Expensive for the company is almost USD $30.000. But $10.000 could be very affordable, I guess.

Dont forget about primers, they have solved many of my problems and are very well engineered to specific materials (surface energies). Check companies like Dymax, Loctite etc.

thanks!, primers are good idea, but I will ask if they can be used in polypropylene.

thanks again!