Post on 28-Mar-2015
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
Teer Coatings LimitedCoatings for Fuel Cells & Hydrogen Applications
Teer Coatings Ltd, West Stone House,Berry Hill Industrial Estate, Droitwich, Worcestershire, WR9 9AS, UKwww.teercoatings.co.uk
Kevin Cooke
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• Introduction to Teer Coatings Ltd: TCL’s proprietary technology: Closed Field Unbalanced
Magnetron Sputter Ion Plating (CFUBMSIP)
• Applications in Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Example: coatings for PEM cell electrodes TCL’s Low Carbon related Collaborative Research
• Summary & Conclusions• Acknowledgements
Outline of Presentation
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
Founded1982 Coating Services
(Hartlebury)1985
Closed Field System
1987
1st Prod EquipSale 1989
LargerPremises
1992
UK PatCFUBMSIP
1994US Pat
CFUBMSIP 1996
MoST Patent 1999 +2nd
Building1999
+3rd Building
2001 ISO:90022001
Key Facts:• Turnover Approaching £4-5M/yr• Equipment Sales Approaching £2-3M/yr• High Proportion of Export Sales• Now ~57 Employees
Company History
ISO:90012003
NewFactory
2004
US PatentDymon-iC
2008
25 yrs!2007
ISO:90012008
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
Company Structure
PRODUCTION COATINGS
EQUIPMENT BUILDING
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
• 15 Coating Systems• Automated cleaning, etc.• Single items to 10,000’s/wk
• ~17 Coating Systems• plus, range of Testing
& Analysis Equipment
• Design & Manufacture• Coating & Test Equipment• Inc. “bespoke” designs
3 PRIMARY DIVISIONS:
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• July 2009: Miba AG took a minority share (24.9%) of TCL full ownership is expected by the
end of 2010. until then TCL remains a SME!
• The Miba Group is a leading international company, of ~2600 employees, headquartered in Austria.
• Miba is a leading strategic partner of the international engine and automotive industry. Miba’s product portfolio includes sintered components,
engine bearings, friction and coated materials. • TCL & HTC (Miba’s Coatings Competence Centre,
with ~40 employees) will collaborate closely.
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
Routine Production Coatings:
• Hard coatings, e.g. for cutting tools, etc.– e.g. single nitrides TiN, CrN… & alloy nitrides TiAlN,
CrAlN, CrTiAlN…, oxides, multilayers, etc.• Self lubricating, low friction coatings for wear resistance
– e.g. carbon based: TCL Graphit-iC™& Dymon-iC; and MoS2 based: TCL MoST™
• Plus, coatings for corrosion resistance, electrical conductivity, optical properties, etc.
• Coatings typically 1-3µm thick, but…– nm to mm thickness possible for special applications
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
1
H 1.0079
2
He 4.0026
3
Li 6.941
4
Be 9.012
5
B 10.811
6
C 12.011
7
N 14.007
8
O 16.00
9
F 19.00
10
Ne 20.179
11
Na 22.99
12
Mg 24.30
13
Al 26.98
14
Si 28.09
15
P 30.974
16
S 32.06
17
Cl 35.453
18
Ar 39.948
19
K 39.10
20
Ca 40.08
21
Sc 44.96
22
Ti 47.90
23
V 50.94
24
Cr 52.00
25
Mn 54.938
26
Fe 55.85
27
Co 58.93
28
Ni 58.69
29
Cu 63.55
30
Zn 65.39
31
Ga 69.72
32
Ge 72.59
33
As 74.92
34
Se 78.96
35
Br 79.90
36
Kr 83.80
37
Rb 85.47
38
Sr 87.62
39
Y 88.91
40
Zr 91.22
41
Nb 92.91
42
Mo 95.94
43
Tc (98)
44
Ru 101.1
45
Rh 102.91
46
Pd 106.42
47
Ag 107.87
48
Cd 112.41
49
In 114.82
50
Sn 118.71
51
Sb 121.75
52
Te 127.60
53
I 126.91
54
Xe 131.29
55
Cs 132.91
56
Ba 137.33
57 *La
138.91
72
Hf 178.49
73
Ta 180.95
74
W 183.85
75
Re 186.21
76
Os 190.2
77
Ir 192.2
78
Pt 195.08
79
Au 196.97
80
Hg 200.59
81
Tl 204.38
82
Pb 207.2
83
Bi 208.98
84
Po (209)
85
At (210)
86
Rn (222)
As a major constituent
As a minor component
Coatings: a continually expanding range….
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
….for many different applications….
Cutting ToolsGears, Bearings and other Wear Components
Body Jewellery….!
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
….including Coating of Powders & Grits!
Barrel Coater(Load Locked)
Coating sources project into barrel
Powder exposed to coating flux
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• Unbalanced field.• Field lines “closed” with another
magnetron.• Plasma confined around
substrates.• Electrons loss to chamber walls
minimised.• Increased ionisation.• Dense, adherent coatings• Typical energies 20-30eV,
ideal for high quality film growth.
Closed Field Magnetron Sputtering
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• FC&H2 Example - coatings for bipolar plates:
– TCL’s magnetron sputtering technology is• industrially qualified• ideal for the deposition of thin, dense, well adhered,
high quality coatings on a wide range of substrates (including metals and vacuum-stable polymers).
– Product-specific results of TCL’s previous work in this field are obviously confidential to the customers concerned!
[V Fox: presented at - Manufacturing of Bipolar Plates event, Swerea IVF, Stockholm, 29th January 2008]
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• “Metallic” thin film coatings for bipolar plates:– dense, homogeneous coatings of metals are deposited
at high rates– multiple elemental targets (typically 4 or 6)
• alloys and/or graded compositions easily created
– compounds (nitrides, oxides, etc.) can be synthesised by reactive deposition
• reactive gas (e.g. N2) introduced during the deposition process
• compound (e.g metal + nitrogen = MeN) formed in situ• automatic feed back control (reactive gas flow slaved to metal
content of the plasma)
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• Transition metal nitrides (e.g. TiN, CrN etc.)– hard, dense and relatively inert– routine coating sources up to 1m (>2m demonstrated!) – metallic levels of electrical conductivity– excellent adhesion (Rockwell and scratch adhesion results on M42 tool steel substrate
shown below)
TiN (~3µm)
SEM cross section
TiN (~3µm)
SEM cross section
TiN
Rockwell C indentation
TiN
Rockwell C indentation
0 20 40 60 80 1000
5
10
15
20
Load (N)
Friction force (N)
TiN, Critical load ~ 90N
1st derivative
0 20 40 60 80 1000
5
10
15
20
Load (N)
Friction force (N)
TiN, Critical load ~ 90N
1st derivative
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• New high rate magnetron deposition of TiN:– 2 magnetrons (12.5kW each)– 50 mins deposition: total thickness 3.36 μm– deposition rate 4 μm/hr 4x higher than from
conventional magnetrons– hardness: 33 GPa
– scratch adhesion – Lc>60N (i.e. very good)
• So, achieved 4x increase in rate with no obvious deterioration in coating quality
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• Graphit-iC™ coatings – originally developed for demanding, high load
bearing, tribological applications• contains ~5 at. % chromium• hardness H = 10 to 40 GPa (selectable); • Young’s modulus E* ~ 155 GPa• low coefficient of friction (<0.1)• very low specific wear rate (~ 10-17 m3N-1m-1)• electrically conducting (like graphite) – high sp2
content
– conventional process, ~2µm takes several hrs
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
Graphit-iC™ Coating Process• 3-steps:
– in-situ ion cleaning– deposition of thin metallic Cr interlayer– deposition of C-Cr layer
0.2 m
1.8 m
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
Magnetron 1(Conventional magnetron)
Magnetron 3(Conventional magnetron)
Target size 380 x 175mm
Two high power magnetronsused in place of conventional
magnetrons for the carbon targets
Carbon target Carbon target
Chromium target
Chromium target
Towards high rate Graphit-iCdeposition
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• Graphit-iC™ coatings for bipolar plates:– power input can be increased by up to 3x cf TCL’s
“conventional” Graphit-iC coating process– deposition rates improved by 2 to 2.7x, say– here, 2-axis rotation improves coating uniformity. In-line
systems with magnetrons sputtering simultaneously onto both sides of the plates could be used in a production process.
– pure carbon or Graphit-iC coatings can be deposited at thickness ranging from <100nm to a few microns
– coatings can be (have been) deposited with or without Cr adhesion layers
– rates as high as ~5 µm/hour are already achievable for a stationary substrate (equivalent to 85nm per min)
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
TSB Projects
CLUSTERBEAMMNT (’06-’09)
HYPNOMEMTP (’06-’09)
PROSVACTTP (’08-’11)
NECLASSTP (’08-’10)
Low Cost PVsTP (’08-’11)
HydroGENTP (’08-’11)
TCL’s Collaborative Projects related to “Low Carbon”
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• Technology Programme projects include:– NECLASS: improving FC catalyst utilisation– HydroGEN: coatings for electrolysis
– HYPNOMEM: thin film membranes for H2 purification
– CLUSTERBEAM/PROSVACT: creating nano-clusters for model catalysts, etc.
– Low cost Photovoltaics: cheap, PV materials by thin film, with improved spectral response & long life
• TCL project leader – except for HydroGEN &NECLASS
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
Summary & Conclusions
• PVD coatings have multiple potential applications in Fuel Cells and the Hydrogen Economy
• Teer Coatings Limited offers relevant, industrially-qualified, thin film coatings– e.g. environmentally resistant, electrically conductive
thin film coatings for electrode plates• TCL can support partners’ process and
equipment needs, from R&D through to full production
• TCL’s research portfolio includes relevant collaborative projects
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
Acknowledgements
• The collaborative projects described above have benefited from DTI/Technology Strategy Board (MNT and Technology Programme) support.
• HYPNOMEM was a joint feasibility project by Univ B’ham’s Metallurgy & Materials Department (Rex Harris, John Speight, David Book, Vicky Mann, Sean Fletcher, Jo Grant) and TCL (Joanne Hampshire).
• Other project collaborators are too numerous to mention, but are gratefully acknowledged!
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• For more information please contact:
Teer Coatings Limited,
West Stone House,
Berry Hill Industrial Estate,
Droitwich, Worcs, WR9 9AS, UK.Tel: +44(0)870 220 3910; Fax: +44(0)870 220 3911
www.teercoatings.co.uk
Teer Coatings Ltd Hydrogen Energy
Universities of Birmingham & Warwick, Hydrogen Energy, 22nd January, 2010 © Teer Coatings, 2010Kevin Cooke
• Key Contacts:Paul Teer – Managing Director
Dennis Teer – Chairman/Technical Director
Dr Kevin Cooke – Collaborative Research Coord
Dr Glynn Dyson – Sales & Marketing Manager
Wayne Southall – Production Coatings Manager
Dr Joanne Hampshire – Special Coatings Manager