Page 6 - Handbook of Surface Improvement and Modification

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Introduction

Beginning in the stone age, 300,000 BC, the technology of shaping materials was used to
make products which can help in daily activities. Use of a single material found in the
neighborhood was the main feature of the shaping technology.
In the next centuries, many useful materials found applications but only around
5,500 BC (bronze age) a technology was found to create new shapes of materials by melt-
ing metal followed by the casting process. These were still products manufactured from a
singular source of raw materials.
Porcelain was most likely the first multilayer material created to differentiate proper-
ties of the surface from the bulk. Glazed porcelain was invented in China during Sui
dynasty (581-618 AD). The external surface of a porcelain base was coated with a vitreous
glaze and baked in a kiln at 1200°C. This resulted in a very low water absorption coeffi-
cient (below 0.004) and extremely hard surface. The ancient Greeks painted their potteries
as early as in 11th century BC, but only for the decorative purposes. The Egyptians had
done it much earlier around 3300 BC.
There is also known another example of multilayer product obtained by a combina-
tion of properties of iron and wood. Celtic chariots used the wheel in the first millennium
BC which had a metal rim on the surface of the wood. Such wheels were improved and
used for centuries until the 1870s when pneumatic tires were invented.
The above main turning points in technology show that technological developments
were very slow because of the lack of background in physics, chemistry, and material sci-
ence. Most of the developments in the production of multilayer materials occurred in the
20th century during which such common processes as blown film coextrusion, coating,
coextrusion, compression molding, crosslinking, curtain coating, doping, film lamination,
fused deposition, grafting, laser treatment, metallization, plasma treatment, printing,
spraying, sputtering, thermoforming, vacuum plasma spraying, and many other complex
technological processes in use today were developed. The surface modification is now
possible due to the developments in machines, chemical technology, and applications of
physical processes.
Material structure formation is much easier today because of progress in physics and
chemistry of materials which permits the development of materials which can fulfill many
demanding functions at the same time.
This book is devoted to additives used for surface modification of materials − a tech-
nology used in the production and processing of adhesives, appliances, automotive, book-
binding, building and construction, business machines, cellular phones, coatings,
concrete, electronics, flooring, footwear, furniture, graphic arts, lacquers, leather, optical