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General PVD Coatings
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Richter Precision Inc. is pleased to provide Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) coating processes as part of our standard line of wear-resistant coatings for tooling and components. We have been producing PVD coatings for over 25 years from our headquarters in Pennsylvania, the largest PVD, CVD, and TD toll coating facility in North America.

What is PVD coating?
Physical Vapor Deposition, or PVD, is a term used to describe a family of coating processes. The most common of these PVD coating processes are hollow cathode reactive ion plating, cathodic arc deposition, and magnetron sputtering. All of these processes occur in vacuum at roughly 10-2 to 10-4 Torr. All of these deposition methods involve the generation of positively charged ions. These ions react with gases that are introduced into the vacuum chamber to create various coating compositions. The parts to be coated are given a negative bias in order to attract the positively charged ions. The result is a very strong physical bond between the coating and the tooling substrate.

Numerous improvements have been introduced within the PVD coating industry over the past few years, and Richter Precision Inc. has been leading the way. We have developed new coating compositions, new multi-layer combinations, a family of DLC coating processes, and new technological advancements such as Filtered Arc technology and improved etching processes. We are devoted towards maintaining our position as a leader in PVD coating industry.

Under the general heading of PVD, Richter Precision Inc. provides several proprietary coating processes to meet our customers’ needs. Each of these processes represents a family of specific PVD coating compositions (TiN, TiCN, etc) that are processed in ways that are beneficial to specific applications. These proprietary PVD coating processes include:

Titankote™ - Richter Precision, Inc.’s general purpose tool coating processes. This process is used for most PVD coating applications, including cutting tools, punches & dies, tribological purposes, and much more. This name includes PVD processes (indicated with Titankote™ C… designations) and CVD processes (indicated with Titankote™ H… designations).

Replikote™ - Richter Precision, Inc.’s PVD coating process specifically developed for highly polished, optical grade surfaces. This ultra-refined PVD process filters out all macro particles. This makes it possible to deposit a defect-free thin-film layer onto large optical surfaces, thereby replicating the existing surface finish. This process is typically used for plastic injection molding applications.

Medikote™ - Richter Precision, Inc.’s PVD coating processes specifically designed to meet the stringent quality requirements of the medical device manufacturing industry. The Medikote™ PVD coating processes emphasize traceability, critical process validation, frozen process control, inspection/certification, continuous improvement, service and delivery.

Richkote™ - This is Richter Precision, Inc.’s proprietary name for our decorative PVD coating processes. Our processes incorporate the latest in “in-line” decorative PVD coating: the service, quality, technology, and color varieties provided by RPI are unmatched within the industry. Our low-temperature PVD magnetron sputtering units can even coat chrome-plated ABS plastics.

Regardless of the tooling application, the primary reason for using PVD coatings (or any of our coating processes) is very simple: to lower the end-users’ manufacturing cost-per-part. The savings calculation is very easy: reduction in toolings costs (longer life means fewer tools required) + reduced down-time for PM and/or tool changes + increased production rates = significant and tangible savings for your company.

Although all of our coatings have some variation in their properties in order to augment their performance in specific applications, there are two main properties that are fundamental to all of our coatings: high hardness and lubricity.

The average relative micro-hardness of our PVD coatings go well off the Rc Scale, but can be extrapolated to be over 80 Rc. When this hardness is compared to 58-62 Rc of tool steel, 62-65 Rc of HSS, or 70-76 Rc of cemented carbide, one gets a clearer picture of the comparative hardness of our coatings. This higher hardness gives cutting tools, forming tools, and wear components much greater protection against abrasive wear.

As for lubricity, the Coefficient of Friction of our coatings is significantly lower than un-coated tool substrates. This low Coefficient of Friction means that tools work with less force due to reduced resistance between the tool and the material being worked. This also means that PVD coatings can reduce the tendency of materials to adhere: this reduces friction and allows for more unrestricted movement.

For example, this is what PVD coatings can do to improve the performance of a cutting tool, such as an end mill or a drill:

• The high micro-hardness provides excellent abrasion resistance, and allows the cutting edge to stay sharper for longer
• The lowered Coefficient of Friction means there is less resistance during the cut; therefore, less heat is generated – heat build-up being another major factor in cutting edge break-down
• The lowered Coefficient of Friction also means the chips generated during the cutting process are evacuated more efficiently; therefore, the heat that is generated does not have as much time to transfer from the chip to the tool – more heat stays in the chip
• The lowered Coefficient of Friction will reduce machining noise and the load placed on spindle motors
• The lack of chemical affinity between various coatings and work pieces will reduce material “pick-up,” another leading cause of cutting edge breakdown. For example, when cutting titanium with a ZrN coated end mill, the titanium has no chemical affinity towards ZrN; therefore, you will experience almost no “pick-up.”
• The lowered Coefficient of Friction creates a free-cutting tool – this may reduce or eliminate burrs and help to improve the surface finish or machined parts

Since every customer’s application is different, we invite you to contact Richter Precision Inc. for more information. Our experienced sales representatives would be pleased to help you make the appropriate coating selection for your particular requirements.

>> Click Here, to see Richter Precision's coatings technical data

>> Below is a chart showing comparison of three major coating processes: