PVD Coating for other Applications

PVD coating is useful for a wide variety of specialized industries, including automotive, aerospace, medical, energy, food processing and packaging, recreational equipment, electronics & semiconductors, and decorative coating.

Automotive

PVD coating is commonly used on automotive components, especially the combustion engine, which is run at a high temperature with a high-wearing piston ring moving back and forth. A PVD coating, especially DLC, greatly decreases friction and can also enhance the combustion efficiency in the engine’s chamber, increase wear resistance, reduce the energy loss caused by friction, improve fuel efficiency, and reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. This makes the engine far more efficient. In addition, the coating can provide a perfect metallic look for plastic components.

Recreational Equipment

PVD coatings that enhance hardness, lower friction, and create a shining metallic appearance can be very useful to manufacturers of recreational equipment, such as sports products and bicycles. The coating can enhance resistance to wear, increasing the hitting distance of golf clubs and other equipment, reducing the need for lubricants in the driving gear of bicycles (so that your pants do not become contaminated by lubricant), and generally increase equipment performance. Furthermore, the shining metallic look available in different colors can help you to customize your equipment with the appearance you want.

Electronics & Semiconductors

PVD coating is used in both the electronics and semiconductor industries. PCB (printed circuit board) routing requires precise cutting using a needle-sized end mill. Without applying a hard PVD coating to increase routing performance and lifespan, the mill would be very weak and easily worn, decreasing the cutting performance. Furthermore, PVD coating can protect electronic products from chemical erosion. Products such as IC packaging molds require high precision after many runs of production and a PVD coating layer decreases the molds’ adhesive effect so that they work longer and release more easily. All of this saves manufacturers a ton of money.

Medical Implements

PVD coating also plays an important role in medical implements. The implements require instant and smooth release after cutting the cutter and tissue (skin and flesh). Poor cutting would result in bad wound recovery, increasing patient time in the hospital and reducing patient turnaround. Not only do PVD coatings of medical implements decrease sticking, but they also reduce corrosion inside the patients and provide a biocompatible surface, which lets the implants work more effectively and last longer.

Aerospace Blades

The blades on helicopters and the turbine blades on airplanes face such difficulties as sand corrosion over deserts and acid particles erosion in the atmosphere. PVD coating has been adopted by helicopters, commercial airplanes, and other aircraft as the solution to these problems. Not only does PVD coating reduce the corrosive and erosive wear of the blades, but it also enhances high-temperature resistance, reduces the need for lubricants, and increases the lifespans of the blades up to 20 times, depending on the working condition.

Decorative Coating

PVD’s high-quality coating can be used to enhance the decorative appeal of many high-end products, such as jewelry, handles for doors and furniture, and a wide variety of tools. Numerous resilient color coatings are available, which can provide vivid shine and enhanced color to such materials as brass, nickel, steel, and gold. Furthermore, the coating can provide a compelling metallic appearance to all kinds of non-metallic objects. And the enhanced resilience that PVD coatings deliver means that the objects become highly scratch-resistant, so that even objects that receive a lot of use, such as jewelry, remain attractive and smooth.

Plastic Metalizing

Through sputtering, thermal evaporation, or cathodic arc, the metalization technology can be used on a wide range of substrates, including plastic, to craete brilliant reflective or decorative finishes. In-chamber plasma polymerizied top-coat is also an optoin in the system for better protection. The most common applications with metalizing technology includes autotmotive lighting/trim, LED lighting, chrome finishing, decorative packaging, solar energy, EMI/RFI shielding, plastic hardware, appliance handles/knobs, etc.