Poor Wetting Problem of Plastic Formers for Toy Balloon Manufacturing

Manufacturer: We are toy balloon manufacturer, using formers made from plastics. Occasionally, we are hit by high rejection rate and we suspect poor wetting of the plastic formers as the major cause because when we use ceramic formers, we do not have similar problems. We understand that some manufacturers practice some kind of treatment on the formers before use. What is this treatment?

John Woon (Senior Latex Consultant): Yes, such poor wetting problem is to be expected because the plastic formers, especially polyolefin plastics, have comparatively low surface free energy compared to ceramic formers.

You could try roughening the surface of the plastic formers with sand paper followed by etching with acids such as sulphuric acid and chromic acid. Other treatments include corona discharge, flame and plasma. But all these treatments should have been done by the plastic former manufacturers.