Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) is the vacuum-coating technique used to enhance the properties and performance of metal, ceramic, or plastic objects by depositing thin metallic or ceramic film coatings on their surface.

The most common PVD coating processes used today are cathodic arc evaporation and magnetron sputtering. Both of these coating processes take place in a vacuum deposition chamber where reactive gases such as nitrogen, acetylene, or oxygen are introduced to create various compound coatings.

In the cathodic arc evaporation coating process, a high current, low voltage is started on the surface of a cathode electrode that ionizes evaporated metal materials. Those metal ions are transported through a vacuum chamber with the mix of reactive gases and deposited as a thin film on a substrate contained there. This ionization greatly enhances the film’s properties and adhesion.

Magnetron sputtering uses argon gas to bombard high-energy magnetrons on to a target surface, resulting in a sputter of atoms from the target. Sputtered atoms are emitted through the chamber and deposited as a thin film on a substrate. Magnetron sputtering is an extremely flexible coating method so that almost any material can be used for the coating.

Improve hardness:
Hardness of substrate surface can be increased 3 to 5 times by applying PVD coating without impairing tolerance and quality of coated parts

Increase wear resistance:
Higher hardness gives cutting tools and forming tools etc. much better protection against abrasive wear.

Increase oxidation resistance:
Oxidation resistance can be increased by adding a layer of protection coating on substrate surface.

Reduce friction:
Applied with coating on the surface of molds and forming dies, products can be released from molds and dies easily due to lower friction coefficient.

Increase productivity:
For working components, such as cutting tools, higher feed rate can be achieved by increasing wear resistance and heat resistance.