Surfx Technologies

Nutplate Plasma Cleaner

Nutplate Plasma Cleaner

Cleans and activates nutplates for adhesive bonding in seconds.

The Nutplate Plasma Cleaner (NPC) is a rapid, repeatable, cost-effective, point-of-use tool for surface preparation of nutplates. The NPC replaces traditional methods of surface preparation, such as solvent cleaning or manual sanding, eliminating operator variability and maximizing bond strength. The tool offers continuous monitoring and logging of process parameters to provide better fleet reliability. Point-of-use plasma cleaning drives bond failure away from the nutplate surface and eliminates interfacial disbonds. The plasma generated by the NPC removes surface contaminants in a matter of seconds with no other cleaning steps required. The plasma converts the fastener to a high surface energy, hydrophilic state and renders it active for bonding. Rigorous testing has shown that the NPC produces bonded nutplates with superior performance. Plasma cleaned nutplates far exceed minimum load requirements and exhibit either cohesive or mechanical failures. This means the bond created by the plasma can exceed the mechanical limits of the fastener.