Tech Talk Blog

We’ve received a request for a quick review of plasma, so I present Plasma 101…

Simply put, plasma is an ionized gas, a gas into which sufficient energy frees electrons from atoms. Plasma is the fourth state of matter.  With plasma, positive ions, negative ions, electrons and radicals coexist in a concert of reactions and collisions — as long as an electric potential exists.

Plasma systems control the treatment conditions by controlling the gas type, flow, pressure, and concentration.  Plasma also dictates the energy, frequency, wattage, and electrode configuration.

Vacuum plasma technique is one form of surface modification our team provides.  Plasma has the unique ability to treat a material three dimensionally to prime any surface for adhesion, painting, coating or printing.  And plasma is recognized as a “green” process that releases no hazardous byproducts.

As always, if you still need some clarification – don’t hesitate to Ask The Experts!

Now that we’ve established the importance of bag selection in accelerated aging, let’s move on to temperatures.

The aging process subjects samples to elevated temperatures for specific periods of time to simulate the effects of real-time aging.  It is usually required in the testing of medical equipment such as diagnostic devices and surgical implements, and also in aerospace applications.

We’ve noticed the tendency for keeping testing temperatures too high.  By maintaining too high of a temperature, unintended physical changes such as melting may occur.  One must consider the most likely temperature extremes a device would see in practical use and test the device at that temperature.  Another temperature guideline is the Arrhenius reaction rate function, or “10-degree rule.”  This function states that a 10° C increase or decrease in the temperature of a homogenous process results in approximately a two times or ½ time change in the rate of a chemical reaction.

Share with us your experience with temperature testing.