A sputter deposition apparatus including: a remote plasma generation arrangement arranged to provide a plasma for sputter deposition of target material within a sputter deposition zone; a confining arrangement arranged to provide a confining magnetic field to substantially confine the plasma in the sputter deposition zone a substrate provided within the sputter deposition zone; and one or more target support assemblies arranged to support one or more targets in the sputter deposition zone so as to provide for sputter deposition of the target material on the substrate. The confining arrangement confines the remote plasma to the target support assemblies such that in use there is deposited: target material as a first region on the substrate; target material as a second region on the substrate; and an intermediate region between the first and second region including a blend of target materials.

An atmospheric pressure plasma processing apparatus and method employing argon as a plasma gas in the absence of helium, including nanosecond pulse-powered electrodes having planar surfaces, and grounded electrodes having planar surfaces parallel to the surfaces of the powered electrodes and spaced-apart a chosen distance therefrom, forming plasma regions, are described. The absence of helium from the plasma discharge has been found not to affect the quality of the resulting plasma-polymerized coatings of the processed substrates.

A treatment method performed by a film processing apparatus including: a first discharge electrode unit and a second discharge electrode unit respectively including magnets that form a magnetic field; and an AC power source capable of alternately switching polarities of the first discharge electrode unit and the second discharge electrode unit. In the treatment method, a predetermined surface treatment of a film F is performed by generating a plasma P while alternately switching polarities of the first discharge electrode unit and the second discharge electrode unit by using high-frequency power supplied from the AC power source.

A method for forming a film on a substrate by continuous vapor deposition includes: introducing the substrate into a film-forming apparatus; conveying the substrate into a pretreatment compartment of a pressure reduction chamber of the film-forming apparatus; performing plasma pretreatment of the substrate including supplying a plasma source gas composed of argon and at least one of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide gas and ethylene, introducing the plasma source gas that has been supplied as plasma into a gap between a magnet of the pretreatment compartment and a pretreatment roller such that the plasma is entrapped in the gap, and holding the plasma and applying a voltage between the pretreatment roller and a plasma-supply nozzle; conveying the substrate into a vapor deposition compartment of the pressure reduction chamber; and forming the film by vapor deposition on a surface of the substrate which has been pretreated.

An expansion mount, electrode arrangement and a surface treater station include a mounting block with one or more clamps pivotally coupled to the mounting block to move between a connect position and a release position. When the mounting block is coupled to a surface treater, the one or more clamps are configured to engage the electrode in the connect position and disengage from the electrode in the release position.

Using electrostatic means, such as plasma, webs can be cut, and webs can be bonded together. A plasma is created and directed at an intervening poly or a nonwoven to sever the fabric, either continuously or intermittently, or to bond and sever two more material layers together.

A method for laying up a composite material includes steps of (1) depositing the composite material onto a substrate; (2) compacting the composite material with a compaction roller, the compaction roller and the substrate defining a nip; and (3) projecting a plasma flume proximate the nip to heat at least one of the composite material and the substrate.

Provided is a method for nitriding a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet which is very useful in obtaining excellent magnetic properties with no variation, that enables generating glow discharge between positive electrodes and negative electrodes disposed in a nitriding zone and irradiating the generated plasma to a strip to perform appropriate nitriding.

A treatment apparatus includes two can rolls provided on a transfer path through which a long resin film is transferred in a roll-to-roll manner in a vacuum chamber; and surface treatment means facing an outer circumference of each of the can rolls to treat a surface of the long resin film cooled by being wound around the outer circumference. The downstream can roll is provided with upper and lower two sets of feeding and sending systems, and one surface of the long resin film in contact with the outer circumference of the downstream can roll at a time when the long resin film travels through the lower one of the two sets of feeding and sending systems is opposite to the other surface of the resin film in contact with the outer circumference of the downstream can roll at a time when the resin film travels through the upper one.

An object is to provide an atmospheric plasma processing method and an atmospheric plasma processing apparatus capable of suppressing a decrease in a processing speed caused by accompanying gas and performing highly efficient processing in a case where the processing is performed on a workpiece using atmospheric plasma by introducing plasma generation gas between a pair of electrodes and the workpiece from an inner side flow passage passing between the pair of electrodes while relatively moving the workpiece and the pair of electrodes. The object is achieved by defining p*, which is represented by Expression “p*=(h/2Uμ)×(−dP/dx)”, to satisfy 0<p*≤9 in a case where a distance between the pair of electrodes and the workpiece is denoted by h, a relative movement speed between the pair of electrodes and the workpiece is denoted by U, a viscosity of gas existing between the pair of electrodes and the workpiece is denoted by μ, a gas pressure between the pair of electrodes and the workpiece is denoted by P, and a position in a transport direction of the workpiece is denoted by x.