Ebble Group work with a number of different processes and technologies to offer the range of equipment, products and services that suit our core knowledge.
Specialising in manufacturing and using surface treatment technology with a strong focus on Plasma Treatment and Corona Treatment we’re able to offer improved performance of industrial components; this improved performance is often for adhesion purposes with common improvement projects including adhesive bonding improvement, printing ink adhesion strength and coating adhesion and quality. Other common applications include tape and label adhesion, material cleaning using plasma cleaning and improved liquid flow known as wetting caused by creating a hydrophilic material surface.
Here we will discuss the core technologies and products available by the Ebble Group along with direction to Tantec, Ebble Manufacturing and Ebble.Shop for you to find out more information.
Plasma treatment alongside corona treatment are two powerful techniques for pretreating materials in order to prepare them for other processes such as adhesive bonding or printing.
Both technologies work by using high voltage to excite molecules in the air within the system which is directed to the surface so the energetic molecules can interact and prime the material. The systems may use compressed air, but they require no chemicals or consumables other than power.
This form of surface treatment is an alternative to chemical primers, gas flame treatment or manual preparation techniques like abrading and grit blasting.
The high performance systems are highly used within industries such as medical device manufacturing and automotive manufacturing where automation controlled solutions are used to ensure the highest degree of repeatability and consistency.
These systems are available to buy through the equipment side of the business Tantec UK or available to use on a subcontract treatment basis with Ebble Manufacturing.
Rental systems, lab support and initial project discussions are also available through Tantec UK.
Ozone surface treatment offers similar results to Plasma and Corona technology, however, unlike plasma and corona treatment it is a gas that can stay active for a much longer time frame. Plasma and corona need the components they are treating to be within the treatment zone while ozone can be pumped, pushed or blown into spaces where treatment is needed.
This is especially useful for treatment of cavities or small areas that other treatments can’t reach.
The technology has been successfully used for treatment of rotationally moulded components such as fibre glass boat hulls, cool box cavities and pipe internal walls.
In most cases these applications have been to apply a liquid foam material such as polyurethane. Improving flow and adhesion of a foam in these applications removes voids and gives an even and well bonded foam within the product which makes the finished good more consistent and with higher performance.
Ebble Manufacturing don’t offer this as a service yet, but systems are available to buy through Tantec UK.
The treatment technologies we offer are designed around the concept of using high voltage to energise air and manipulate the material surface.
Taking the heart and brains of these systems we can use the high voltage in a slightly different way and measure the difference in how the power is used.
If a part has a hole, even as small as a micron in size, high voltage will jump through the hole and find ground leading to a spike in power. If a part is good with no holes then there won’t be a spike. We can measure this very accurately and importantly very quickly over a large number of parts.
So quickly that we can often measure dozens of parts every second. This could be an array of parts from a moulding machine or inline testing of caps or parts moving along a conveyor. The system can test and measure 100% of the parts presented and identify which are failures. This high performance test method is fantastic for medical components in particular.
This can be available for use as subcontract testing at Ebble Manufacturing, however, because tooling is required for individual parts it’s often more sensible to purchase these systems for your own testing, speak with the team at Tantec for more information on this.
When using the surface treatment systems we offer, it is sensible to couple with a quality test method to confirm treatment has happened and to the correct level. One of the best ways to check this is using surface energy measuring.
Every material has a surface energy, it can be thought of as the materials available energy to interact with the world around it – specifically liquids like adhesives and inks. We can measure this energy using interactions with liquids and the two most common methods are Dyne Test Pens and Inks or Contact Angle Measuring.
Ebble Group manufacture and use Dyne Test inks and pens which are a quick and easy method for finding out about the material surface. We also supply Kruss Contact Angle Machines for lab and lineside. These machines are much more expensive than pens and inks but can give more information and they can be more accurate and repeatable than inks.
You can speak with the team at Tantec if you’re interested in buying these systems, or if you want to use either method in our labs.
You can also buy the test inks and dyne pens at our online shop: Ebble.Shop.
Using the technology we’ve been designing and delivering for many years came the need from several customers for increased support. Initially this was mostly for additional testing on projects where customers needed their own equipment in house. But as things developed many customers started using our site as an extension of their factory.
Ebble Manufacturing was born to support Tantec and those looking to buy and use the Tantec systems as well as those who don’t want to buy equipment, or have a wide range of requirements that wouldn’t fit just one machine. Many customers of the subcontract manufacturing site simply don’t want the onsite processing of components and the associated staff, floor space and capital equipment spend required to implement such a project.
Whether small scale prototyping using large scale and real world systems to prove concepts, or whether we’re a manufacturing partner offering treatment, bonding and assembly or other processes, Ebble Manufacturing is an engineering support business with a strong knowledge on surface treatment, bonding, printing and processing of components.
Visit the Ebble Manufacturing for more information on this side of the business.
For all aspects of the business we offer all the support we can, including
Our team are keen to support projects and customers in the best way we can and for many applications we’re open to suggestions and questions from our customers to help guide us with your specific needs.
You can speak with any member of the team regarding specific requests and we’ll put the right one of us in touch to discuss things further.
