Surface treatement for high-friction interface with human hair

[davidHMC]

Hi all,

I am new to both this forum and the entire subject of surface engineering, so I apologize if this post covers something too simple or outright incorrect.

I am a college student and currently doing contracting work through my school. Our project requires us to create attachment methods for high end hair extensions. In order to create a high-friction interface, we planned to cover the inside of our attachment with asperities similar geometric properties to the surface of the hair itself. Thus, I need a surface with asperities on the scale of .5 to 5 microns.

This surface would need to be located on the inside of a tube about .06" in diameter and .2" long. The tube will be made of plastic (either polyurethane, polypropylene, HDPE or LDPE), so an ideal surface treatment would work on plastic. If necessary, I could probably bond a thin surface-treated insert to the inside of the tube.

I initially thought that plasma spraying would be appropriate for the job, but the only company that I spoke to said that the size and material posed too many problems. I've been looking into micro-abrasive blasting, but I am concerned that the asperities will be too large. Does anyone know of a way to do this kind of thing or raise friction somehow else?

Thanks,

David

[plasmajet1990]

Hi David,

Try here:
http://www.plasmacoatings.ro/

Ion

Hi all,

I am new to both this forum and the entire subject of surface engineering, so I apologize if this post covers something too simple or outright incorrect.

I am a college student and currently doing contracting work through my school. Our project requires us to create attachment methods for high end hair extensions. In order to create a high-friction interface, we planned to cover the inside of our attachment with asperities similar geometric properties to the surface of the hair itself. Thus, I need a surface with asperities on the scale of .5 to 5 microns.

This surface would need to be located on the inside of a tube about .06" in diameter and .2" long. The tube will be made of plastic (either polyurethane, polypropylene, HDPE or LDPE), so an ideal surface treatment would work on plastic. If necessary, I could probably bond a thin surface-treated insert to the inside of the tube.

I initially thought that plasma spraying would be appropriate for the job, but the only company that I spoke to said that the size and material posed too many problems. I've been looking into micro-abrasive blasting, but I am concerned that the asperities will be too large. Does anyone know of a way to do this kind of thing or raise friction somehow else?

Thanks,

David

[Gordon]

Hi David,

to the Surface Engineering Forum.

I think you can safely forget about thermal spraying the inside of a hole of this diameter, just no space for a line of sight process. Spraying a very thin coating onto a thin flat substrate and forming inserts should be more viable, but I suspect very far from easy.

I'm having problems visualising what you are trying to achieve, so making it difficult to think of an alternative.