Development of vacuum coating equipment technology

The technology of vacuum coating equipment has not been started for a long time. It was only in the 1960s that CVD (chemical vapor deposition) technology was applied to cemented carbide tools internationally. Because this technology needs to be carried out at high temperature (the process temperature is higher than 1000oC), the coating type is single and has great limitations, so its early development is not satisfactory.

At the end of 1970s, PVD (physical vapor deposition) technology began to appear, which created a Xintiandi full of bright prospects for vacuum coating. Later, in a short period of 20-30 years, PVD coating technology developed rapidly. The reason is that it formed a film in a vacuum sealed cavity, almost without any environmental pollution problems, which is conducive to environmental protection; Because it can get a bright and luxurious surface, in terms of color, there are seven mature colors, silver, transparent, golden yellow, black, and any color from golden yellow to black, which can be described as colorful, and can meet various decorative needs; Because of PVD technology, it is easy to obtain ceramic coatings and composite coatings with high hardness and wear resistance that are difficult to obtain by other methods. When applied to tooling and molds, the service life can be doubled, and the effect of low cost and high income can be achieved; In addition, PVD coating technology has the characteristics of low temperature and high energy, which can form film on almost any substrate. Therefore, its application scope is very broad, and its rapid development is not surprising.

With the development of vacuum coating technology, new technologies such as PCVD (Physicochemical Vapor Deposition) and MT-CVD (Medium Temperature Chemical Vapor Deposition) have also emerged. Various coating equipment and coating processes have emerged one after another. Now in this field, there is a gratifying scene of a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools contending.

At the same time, we should also be aware that the development of vacuum coating technology is seriously unbalanced. Due to the extremely bad working environment of tools and moulds, the requirements for film adhesion are far higher than those for decorative coatings. Therefore, although the manufacturers of decorative coatings have spread all over the country, few manufacturers can produce tooling coatings. In addition to the lack of after-sales service for tool and mold coating, so far, most domestic coating equipment manufacturers cannot provide complete tool coating process technology (including pre-treatment process, coating process, post coating process, detection technology, coating tool and mold application technology, etc.). In addition, it requires process technicians to be proficient in coating expertise, It should also have solid knowledge of metal materials and heat treatment, knowledge of surface pretreatment before tooling coating, reasonable selection of tool and mold coating, and technical requirements for use on the machine. If problems occur in any link, it will give users the conclusion that the use effect is not ideal. All these have seriously restricted the application of this technology in cutting tools and moulds. On the other hand, as this technology is a new frontier discipline between materials science, physics, electronics, chemistry and other disciplines, and the few backbone manufacturers that apply it in the field of tool and mold production in China mostly follow the path of introducing advanced equipment and technology from abroad, which requires a process of digestion and absorption, The current domestic technical strength in this field is not commensurate with its development, and it is urgent to catch up.