Plasma treatments are widely used to activate polymer surfaces prior to adhesive bonding. This study investigates the influence of plasma treatment conditions on the surface activation of a range of polymers using the PlasmaTreat (Open Air) system. In this study the effect of dc pulse plasma cycle time, compressed air flow rate and the plasma jet nozzle to substrate distance on the plasma discharge was examined. The influence that the dc pulse plasma cycle time parameter has on the activation of polypropylene, polystyrene and polycarbonate was also investigated. The level of polymer surface activation was evaluated based on the change in water contact angle after plasma treatment. The polymer surface properties were also monitored using AFM and XPS measurements. The heating effect of the plasma was monitored using both infrared thermographic camera and thermocouple measurements. Plasma diagnostics measurements were obtained using the photo‐diode and optical emission spectroscopy techniques. From this study it was concluded that for the PlasmaTreat system the level of plasma activation was closely correlated with the dc pulsed plasma cycle time, which is a measure of the plasma intensity. For example, the more intense plasma obtained with shorter cycle times gave higher levels of polymer activation. The optimized pulsed plasma cycle times were found to be specific for a given polymer type and related to their thermal properties. The pulsed cycle times were also found to correlate with both the substrate and plasma gas temperatures. magnified image