Product category:
Tooling services
News Release from: Balzers AG | Subject: PVD hard coatings
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 03 November 2003
PVD hard coatings advances made over 25
years
The last 25 years have seen PVD hard coatings play a key role in manufacturing plants as well as in vehicles and machinery - including tools for high-speed or dry machining.
The last 25 years have seen PVD hard coatings play a key role in manufacturing plants as well as in vehicles and machinery Coating applications include tools for high-speed or dry machining and components for state-of-the-art diesel fuel-injection systems
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 3 Nov 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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A quarter of a century has passed since Balzers launched its revolutionary tool-coating technology - revolutionary because very hard, adherent coatings could now be applied at temperatures below 500degC.
Today Balzers is a world market leader, serving its customers in a fast-growing network of more than 50 contract coating centres in 19 countries of Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Plans for the future include expanding this unique service network and strengthening the technology leader's position through continuing innovation.
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The customer benefit is what count - from the outset, Balzers developed not just coatings but the full range of technology needed for production: coating systems, pre- and post-treatment processes, and quality assurance practices.
Because many customers need to outsource their coating, logistical structures allowing quick turnaround and just-in-time delivery were needed as well.
Balint-brand coatings, marketed all over the world, are only a few thousandths of a millimetre thick but exhibit greater hardness than steel.
They protect tools and precision components against wear while reducing friction, greatly extending the service lives and enhancing the performance of coated parts by several orders of magnitude.
The last 25 years have seen PVD hard coatings play a key role in economically significant advances, in manufacturing plants as well as in vehicles and machinery.
Coating applications include tools for high-speed or dry machining and components for state-of-the-art diesel fuel-injection systems like the one used in the world's first 3-liter production automobile.
Market trends - at first a few all-purpose coatings (chiefly titanium nitride) led to performance breakthroughs in a wide variety of fields; in contrast, today's market requires custom coating systems created and optimised for fairly narrow applications.
Coatings must, for example, permit efficient machining of nonferrous metals (aluminium and its alloys) and difficultly machinable materials such as Inconel and titanium alloys, while offering the option of carrying out these demanding operations with minimal lubrication or dry.
In vehicles and machinery, the advantages of PVD coatings are weighed in the design phase with an eye to using coated precision components to meet performance goals and open up the scope for freedom in design.
Meeting the customer's needs - these successes have been and are still achieved only through a close peer partnership between the customer and the coating supplier.
Optimal results in practice can only be attained when tool and coating are perfectly matched.
Improving the performance of precision components means that all factors at work in a tribological system must be known and dealt with.
Know-how in coating and surface engineering is just as vital as expertise in toolmaking and manufacturing processes, and the tasks at hand in the broad spectrum of applications are so specific and complex that rapid progress depends on synergies between these core competencies.
As development cycles grow shorter and shorter, this kind of co-operation becomes the only way to hold expenses to an acceptable level.
Know-how and innovation power are crucial but cannot lead to success unless both parties have access to the needed personnel, plant, and financial resources.
Tens of thousands of customers all over the world are taking advantage of Balint-coated tools and precision components.
The experience they have gathered in the field confirms that the coatings will perform as expected and drives further development.
Balzers offers many aids, such as the Balzers Coating Guide, to help them choose the optimal coating for their application.
Customer proximity and global presence - Balzers now supplies the market through a network of more than 50 certified coating centres located in 19 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
To provide denser geographical coverage, shorten transport routes and delivery times and simplify logistics, the network is steadily being expanded.
When tool and component runs are long, coating can also be performed by Balzers at the customer's plant and integrated into the manufacturing cycle, or customers can purchase equipment and technology and handle the coating operations at their own facilities.
Balzers is the only provider that can offer on-site coating to globally active companies - and can even follow a customer to a new site and install the needed coating capacity.
The trend toward shifting mechanical production lines to low-wage countries does not mean that productivity is not a concern there.
Manufacturers still invest in up-to-date facilities and use advanced tools to make products whose performance and quality need to meet world standards, so it goes without saying that Balzers employs the latest technology and proven manufacturing structures in all expansion projects, no matter where they are located.
Environmental benefits - the plasma coating processes developed and used by Balzers not only help manufacture excellent products; in contrast to other processes such as electroplating and nitriding, they are easy on the environment.
Balzers processes do not generate toxic reaction products, pollutant emissions or wastes that must be disposed of at great expense.
The use of PVD-coated tools and precision components has a number of other environmental advantages.
Metals can be machined with little or no coolant.
Longer tool lives and higher production quality means a lower reject rate and hence reduced consumption of valuable raw materials.
Engines will consume less fuel and generate less tailpipe emissions when they include Balint-coated components; what is more, CFC-free refrigerants can be used in fluidics systems, and water can replace oil as a hydraulic fluid.
Outlook - even a quarter of a century has not nearly exhausted the list of potential applications for PVD coatings.
Further advances will be found and exploited.
For Balzers, this is a commitment to sustaining a high level of investment in the development of coatings and coating technology and in the growth of the company's service network.
About Balzers - Balzers is the leading global supplier of PVD coatings which decisively improve the performance and service lives of precision components as well as metalworking and plastics processing tools.
These proprietary coatings developed by Balzers and marketed under the Balint brand are extremely thin and very hard.
They significantly reduce wear and friction.
Balzers also develops coating processes, manufactures and markets coating systems and turnkey production lines, and offers contract coating services through its dynamically growing network of currently 54 coating centres in Europe, North and South America, and Asia.
Z 309 E (0310) 4/1.
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