Architectural ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) is a highly durable, lightweight, and transparent fluoropolymer material used in building envelopes, offering exceptional strength, UV resistance, thermal performance, and design flexibility for innovative and sustainable architectural applications. ETFE like any plastics, such as polyethylene and polypropylene, have chemically inert and nonporous surfaces with low surface tension causing them to be non-receptive to bonding with printing inks, coatings, and adhesives. Accordingly a Corona treatment (sometimes referred to as air plasma) is a surface modification technique that uses a low temperature corona discharge plasma to impart changes in the properties of a surface. The corona plasma is generated by the application of high voltage to an electrode that has a sharp tip. The plasma forms at the tip. A linear array of electrodes is often used to create a curtain of corona plasma. Materials such as plastics, cloth, or paper may be passed through the corona plasma curtain in order to change the surface energy of the material. Not only ETFE but all materials have an inherent surface energy. Surface treatment systems are available for virtually any surface format including dimensional objects, sheets and roll goods that are handled in a web format. Corona treatment is a widely used surface treatment method in the ETFE film, extrusion, and converting industries.
Its worth to mention finally that printing on transparent ETFE envelope is of immense importance to control solar heat gain through the envelope its customary added to outer layer only.
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