The application of coatings on materials is one of the most used strategies in the industry to improve their properties. By deposition of coatings, a wide range of characteristics of a material can be improved, from a tribological point of view to an aesthetic point of view.

In today’s blog, we present a technology that has great potential in the application of coatings. This technology is physical vapor phase deposition (PVD).

What is physical vapor deposition or PVD?

PVD is characterized by a process in which the material transitions from a condensed phase to a vapor phase and then back to a thin film condensed phase. The most common PVD processes are sputtering and evaporation. PVD is used in the manufacturing of items which require thin films for optical, mechanical, electrical, acoustic or chemical functions. Examples include semiconductor devices such as thin-film solar cells, microelectromechanical devices such as thin film bulk acoustic resonator, aluminized PET film for food packaging and balloons, and titanium nitride coated cutting tools for metalworking. Besides PVD tools for fabrication, special smaller tools used mainly for scientific purposes have been developed.

Grade: 201 202 304 304L 316L 410 420 430 310S 321 904L 2205 2507

Steel Grade: 301L, S30815, 301, 304N, 310S, S32305, 410, 204C3, 316Ti, 316L, 441, 316, L4, 420J1, 321, 410S, 410L, 436L, 443, LH, L1, S32304, 314, 347, 430, 309S, 304, 439, 204C2, 425M, 409L, 420J2, 436, 445, 304L, 405, 370, S32101, 904L, 444, 301LN, 305, 429, 304J1, 317L,

Surface Finish BA/2B/NO.1/NO.4/8K/H

PVD applications

it is worth highlighting the precision and purity offered by physical vapor deposition to obtain coatings. The main PVD applications currently in use are as follows:

Metallic coatings to provide semiconductor properties to a substrate that initially are not.

Magnetic film coating.

Coatings for decorative purposes, widely used in the jewelry area.

Coatings for solar glasses or mirrors, which act as optical interference barriers or reflective barriers.

Conductive layers of palladium or carbon, for electron microscopy samples.

High hardness coatings of composite materials, resistant to wear and corrosion, widely used for the improvement of mechanical tools.

Development of golden colors using physical vapor deposition technology. In this project, the objective was to obtain different shades of golden color on metallic substrates. To carry it out, the optimization of the PVD process of different metallic targets and reactive gases was carried out. As can be seen in the photo, it was obtained from an intense gold to a lighter gold with pink tones.

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