RAPT Industries Technology

Reactive Atom Plasma (RAP™) is a non-contact, sub-aperture, material removal (or deposition) system that uses an atmospheric-pressure gas plasma containing reactive fluorine. Unlike abrasive-based methods, the RAP process removes material chemically without creating sub-surface damage. And because RAP does not produce any downward force on surfaces, it can be used on the most delicate of structures and components.

RAP has an extraordinary range of material removal rates. RAP can be used for damage-free shaping of surfaces at a gross scale and can also be used to make nanometer-scale corrections to precision surfaces.

RAP can be applied to a large range of materials such as glass, metals and ceramics. Challenging materials such as SiO2 glass, Si, SiC, Ti, W, V, Mo, Mn, Ge, WC, Si3N4, BN are all amenable to the RAP process and other plasma compositions can be used for other materials.

The RAP process works particularly well on all varieties of silicon carbide. Conventional abrasive-based processes require enormous processing time and often leave behind residual sub-surface damage. In the case of optics, this sub-surface damage can cause residual stresses in the optical surface which both reduces the fracture toughness of the material and can lead to mechanical deformation over time. In the case of high-performance mechanical components, sub-surface damage can reduce the tensile strength of the component and can lead to catastrophic failure during episodes of transient stress.