A hard coating is an extremely thin protective film that improves the surface properties of a material. These improvements can take place in multiple dimensions and positively impact your tools and components in terms of:
Although the PVD coating is only a few micrometers thick, it enables a marked increase in cutting speeds on a cutting tool, for example. This contributes to an increase in productivity and a longer service life (tool life).
In this process step, the PVD coating chamber is loaded with the substrates. Care is taken to ensure that all elements are optimally positioned for uniform coating thickness.
A high vacuum is required for the deposition of PVD coatings. The creation of the vacuum is called evacuation. Evacuation takes place in PLATIT units in two steps:
Now the chamber is heated up.
The usual process temperatures are around 150 - 500°C.
PLATIT units work with three different etching processes:
Only now does the actual coating deposition take place. For this purpose, PVD coating processes (arc, sputter or hybrid LACS® technology) or PECVD coating processes are used.
After the coatings have been successfully deposited, the chamber must be cooled down in a controlled manner. Too rapid cooling must be prevented as it could lead to stress or defects in the coated substrates.
Once the cooling process is complete, the coating chamber can be unloaded. The tools or components are now coated with a hard material coating that gives them the desired positive properties (hard, low friction, etc.).