Adhesion aspects of plastic composites metallized by a combined vacuum-electrochemical deposition process

In the present work metal coatings were deposited by physical vapour deposition (PVD) on various plastic substrates (polyamide, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride). The thickness of these coatings was increased by electroplating up to a final thickness of 20 pm. Before the PVD coating was applied, the substrates were modified in a low pressure plasma. During this process the effects of various etch gas mixtures and etching times were studied. The adhesion strength of the coatings was determined using the z axis pull test and the peel test. The results show how measured adhesion strengths are greatly influenced by the pretreatment method, the coating material and the structure of the coating.