Apparatus and method for plasma treatment of resin material

Claim 1

An apparatus for irradiating resinous work pieces with plasma which comprises: a vacuum reaction chamber having an inner continuous side wall closed at both ends to provide a work receiving space with a cross sectional area having distance between diametrically opposed points on said wall of at least 1000 mm; means for mounting work pieces within said chamber; a plurality of plasma introducing ports extending through said side wall and spaced circumferentially about said wall in spaced increments; a plurality of pipes individually extending longitudinally of said chamber in proximity to said side wall and adjacent to associated ones of said plurality of introducing ports; a plurality of manifold means associated with and individually connected to each of said plurality of introducing ports, each manifold means having a number of conduits running from each of said plurality of introducing ports to each of said associated ones of said plurality of pipes; each of said plurality of pipes having a plurality of nozzle openings extending along the entire length of each of said plurality of pipes, each of said nozzle openings being circumferentially spaced at angular staggered positions of up to 30° on either side of a reference plane defined by a pair of axes running through the center of each of said plurality of pipes and through an associated one of said plurality of introducing ports; a plurality of plasma exhaust ports extending through said side wall, each of said plurality of exhaust ports being spaced circumferentially and diametrically opposed to individual ones of said plurality of introducing ports and thereby individually paired with said individual ones of plurality of introducing ports to pass plasma through said reaction chamber, said paired plurality of introducing and exhaust ports being positioned on substantially diametrically opposed points on said side wall; and means for operating each pair of said paired plurality of introducing and exhaust ports intermittently and at differently timed intervals from said remaining pairs of said plurality of introducing and exhaust ports, thereby uniformly distributing plasma on the work pieces in said reaction chamber.

Claim 2

An apparatus for irradiating resinous work pieces with plasma which comprises: a vacuum reaction chamber having an inner continuous side wall closed at both ends to provide a work receiving space with a cross sectional area having distance between diametrically opposed points on said wall of at least 1000 mm; means for mounting work pieces within said chamber; a plurality of plasma introducing ports extending through said side wall and spaced circumferentially about said wall in spaced increments; a plurality of pipes individually extending longitudinally of said chamber in proximity to said side wall and adjacent to associated ones of said plurality of introducing ports; a plurality of manifold means associated with and individually connected to each of said plurality of introducing ports, each manifold means having a number of conduits running from each of said plurality of introducing ports to each of said associated ones of said plurality of pipes; each of said plurality of pipes having a plurality of nozzle openings extending along the entire length of each of said plurality of pipes, each of said nozzle openings being circumferentially spaced at angular staggered positions of up to 30° on either side of a reference plane defined by a pair of axes running through the center of each of said plurality of pipes and through an associated one of said plurality of introducing ports; a plurality of plasma exhaust ports extending through said side wall, each of said plurality of exhaust ports being spaced circumferentially and diametrically opposed to individual ones of said plurality of introducing ports and thereby individually paired with said individual ones of plurality of introducing ports to pass plasma through said reaction chamber, said paired plurality of introducing and exhaust ports being positioned on substantially diametrically opposed points on said side wall; and means for operating each pair of said paired plurality of introducing and exhaust ports intermittently and at differently timed intervals from said remaining pairs of said plurality of introducing and exhaust ports, thereby uniformly distributing plasma on the work pieces in said reaction chamber.