Vacuum Coating: Producing Corrosion Coatings without Generating Hazardous Waste

1. Vacuum Coating: Producing Corrosion Coatings without Generating Hazardous Waste Vacuum coating, or the physical vapor deposition, has turned out to be a major enabling technology in the field of surface engineering. Not only does it provide the ability to deposit both thick and thin material coating that cannot be deposited by any other means, it does so at a low temperature and with little atmospheric or water pollution. Simply put, vacuum coating is the process of producing corrosion and wear resistant coatings without generating any hazardous waste, thus environment friendly. What is the Range of Materials? Vacuum coating enables the deposition of both elemental and compound materials of interest, and also allows coatings to be deposited upon a wide variety of materials, including the non-electrical conducting materials such as plastic, fiber and wood. For instance, vacuum-deposited aluminum is a common coating material for protection against corrosion. Aluminum is also used for coating strip steel and reactive metals such as the uranium. Another elemental material that is gaining widespread use is the diamond-like carbon which is a hard carbon material that is utilized as a wear-resistant coating. By using a reactive gas like nitrogen or oxygen in a low-pressure plasma environment, compounds of nitrides, oxides and carbides may be deposited with the help of vacuum coating process. For instance, titanium nitride is a hard, gold-colored compound that is used for coating tools for machining applications, as well as decorative coating for plumbing and other hardware. Other compounds that are deposited comprise of zirconium nitride, chromium nitride, and more complex materials such as the titanium-carbo-nitride. Specific properties may also be tailored by changing the composition of the coating material and by making use of the layered structures.

2. Society of Vacuum Coaters The Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC) is an international association of engineers, scientists and technical personnel involved in the understanding and developing new vacuum coating processes and products, resulting in the transfer of that knowledge into production at a commercially viable unit cost. SVC is guided by the technical advisory committees that cover a wide variety of subjects, from optical coatings to moisture barrier coatings, to energy-related coating such as those for thin film solar cells and low-E windows. One of the greatest TACs covers protective, tribological and decorative coatings. It is in this very area that a common interest may be found between the electroplaters and vacuum coaters.