The Essential Guide to Functional PVD Coatings for Industrial Products
Add hardness, enhance wear resistance, reduce friction, and extend product life with tribological PVD coatings.
What are functional PVD coatings made of?
Many materials are used to create high-performance PVD coatings.
Common functional PVD coatings include chromium nitride (CrN), titanium nitride (TiN), titanium carbonitride (TiCN), Zirconium nitride (ZrN), diamond-like carbon (DLC) and its variants, Zirconium oxycarbide (ZrOC), and titanium aluminum nitride (TiAlN).
Links:
- Functional coatings guide (PDF download)
- Top 5 tribological coatings (blog post)
How do functional PVD systems coat products?
PVD coating technology takes a solid source (called a target) and adds specific inert and reactive gases to deposit coatings. The process takes place in a vacuum chamber, where ionized species (plasma) evaporate material from the target, atom-by-atom. The vapor then deposits on products, creating a protective finish. Functional coatings are usually 1-10 microns thick and require several hours to process in a VaporTech® system.
The V.MAX1500™ batch coater is designed for applications such as cutting and forming tools, precision-engineered components, automotive and aerospace parts, medical devices, and other products that require high hardness, reduced friction, and wear- and corrosion-resistance.
The V.MAX1500:
- Includes six cathodic arc or magnetron sputtering sources that deposit metal-based coatings and a range of DLC coatings.
- Offers heating capability (up to 450°C) to deposit product coatings for extreme environments.
- Is fast and easy to load and maintain, with a removable parts turntable allowing faster loading, unloading, and maintenance.
- Includes plasma nitriding process, which hardens the surface of metal components, combined with PVD coating in a single “duplex” process.
