Our Milestones
2024-today
2025 is a significant year for Plasmatreat: the company is celebrating 30 years of Openair-Plasma®, a technology which has become the global industry standard. To celebrate this milestone, Plasmatreat is presenting a world first: HydroPlasma®, an innovative cleaning process. HydroPlasma® enhances the effect of the proven Openair-Plasma® technology and enables the removal of inorganic residues such as fingerprints, which were previously difficult to remove. This advanced solution offers companies a highly effective and resource-saving alternative to conventional cleaning processes.
Plasmatreat is also expanding its international presence by establishing its own subsidiary in the Benelux region, providing closer support to customers in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Further locations were opened in México and Austria.
One highlight of the anniversary year was the Technology Days in Steinhagen in July. These events offered a varied program with specialist presentations, live demonstrations and networking opportunities with partners and customers.
Production capacities were expanded in 2024 with the addition of a new production hall — an important step for future growth.
2023-2020
In 2023, Plasmatreat presented a world first with the REDOX®-Tool: a reducing plasma removes oxidation and replaces environmentally harmful flux in soldering processes. The tool is already being used successfully by the first industrial customers.
In 2022, the company reached an important milestone with the 10,000th plasma system sold. In addition, Magnus and Lukas Buske, the sons of Managing Director Christian Buske, joined the company management and are thus leading the company into the next generation.
In terms of technology, the year brought three new plasma nozzles, including a low-temperature nozzle and the first rotary nozzle for PlasmaPlus®.
In 2021 and 2020, Plasmatreat grew with new locations in Sweden, Spain and Switzerland. Openair-Plasma® was increasingly used in battery module assembly by automotive manufacturers. Plasmatreat was also recognized as a certified supplier for the semiconductor industry in 2020.
2019-2015
In 2019, Plasmatreat opened its new international technology and research center in Steinhagen. State-of-the-art training rooms for up to 200 participants, areas for mechanical engineering and rooms for customer-specific training were created on an area of 1,400 m². At the same time, the Plasmatreat Academy was founded to impart practical knowledge about plasma technology.
Plasmatreat further expanded its international presence in 2017. Global research and development was significantly strengthened with the opening of the Technology Center in Silicon Valley (Hayward, USA) and the founding of Plasmatreat Korea. Further R&D sites are located in Canada, China and Japan.
Plasmatreat celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2015. In this context, the company was included in the “Lexicon of German World Market Leaders” and honored with the “Future Champion Award” - proof of its leading role in the field of atmospheric pressure plasma systems. Even back then, customers included world-famous companies such as BASF, Ford, Miele and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen.
2014 – 2010
In 2014, Plasmatreat wins the "GREEN GOOD DESIGN AWARD 2014" in the "Green Research / Technology" category in the USA for the environmental friendliness, economic efficiency and sustainability of its Openair-Plasma® pretreatment technology.
Around 2012, the company discovered the island and city-state of Singapore and opened a branch there for the South East Asia region.
With the use of Openair-Plasma® for direct glazing in automotive construction (Ford), Plasmatreat created another innovation on the world market in 2011 and became a license partner. The same year saw the official opening of the sales office in Birkenfeld, near Pforzheim and the southern German automotive industry.
2010 saw the launch of the PT-Release plasma coating, a joint project with system partner CeraCon for the release agent-free processing of PU plastics.
2009 – 2005
During 2009, the company expanded its presence in Asia and Europe, establishing subsidiaries in Shanghai, China and Istanbul, Turkey.
In 2007, the first industrial series application of PlasmaPlus® made it possible to use plasma coatings in series under normal pressure for cleaning and anti-corrosion coating of cast aluminum engine housings (ZF-TRW Automotive).
The Openair-Plasma® technology was used for the first time on a large scale in shipbuilding to bond the insulation of the world's largest LNG tankers (STX France) in 2006.
Between 2005 and 2006, further subsidiaries were established: the first subsidiary in the USA, in Elgin, and a subsidiary of Plasmatreat GmbH in Barcelona, Spain.
In 2005, plasma technology found its way into medical technology with the development of a process for sealing and disinfecting glass ampoules (ROTA).
2004 – 2000
In 2004, joint patents with VW AG, Wolfsburg, and Sika AG, Zurich, for the anti-corrosion coating of aluminum prior to bonding were registered and the subsidiary in Venice, Italy, was established.
The year before, Plasmatreat introduced fully digitalized generator technology, which increased the performance of the Openair-Plasma® jets and enabled continuous performance monitoring. The first large-scale application of atmospheric pressure plasma for structural bonding of refrigerated vehicle bodies (Schmitz Cargobull) also made this year special.
Around 2000, Plasmatreat set one of its greatest milestones with the invention of the rotating plasma jet. The first RD1004 rotating plasma jet is used to generate cold plasma. This plasma jet is particularly suitable for thermally sensitive and geometrically complex surfaces and materials. The patented rotation principle distributes the plasma effect evenly over the materials to be treated.
During this time, a worldwide network of subsidiaries was gradually established, e.g. through the acquisition of competitors or the establishment of own subsidiaries, e.g. in England, Japan, France and Canada.
1999 - 1995
The company grew steadily from 1999 to 1996, developing the revolutionary Openair-Plasma® technology and winning its first customers in the automotive industry, e.g. for the production of EPDM profiles or headlamps. Plasmatreat also developed the PlasmaPlus® plasma coating technology during this period.
The desire of Plasmatreat's first customer to pre-treat the adhesive groove of car headlamps in a fast, in-line process so that the adhesive used to bond the headlamps would hold reliably gave rise to an idea for which Christian Buske filed a patent in 1995: Plasma was now applied to the substrate with pinpoint accuracy using simple "open air" compressed air through a special jet. The new process not only made it possible to create completely new material combinations, it also eliminated the need for environmentally harmful solvent-based wet chemistry and low-pressure chambers. Water-based paint and adhesive systems could now be used. In addition, fine cleaning with plasma replaces costly washing processes and subsequent energy-intensive drying. The Openair-Plasma® process itself requires only simple compressed air and electricity.
