ISSN Nr. 0997 - 6981www.werkzeug-technik.com

25 August 2017Nr. 162 – Price : 11 ¤

CYAN MAGENTA JAUNE NOIR

WerkzeugTechnik

Technology – System – Logistic

Technical magazine for cutting tools and measurement in the manufacturing

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N°

162

A broad portfolio of plasma

technologies combined with

building inline platforms

inspired IHI Hauzer Techno

Coating to adopt a new

company style. What does this

broad range of technologies

actually mean for tool makers

and job coaters?

45 / Werkzeug Technik / NN° 162 / 25 August 2017

COATING /////////////////////

Hybrid Coatings StrengthensMarket Position

IHI Hauzer Techno Coating B.V.

Modularity means that we can manufac-ture in an efficient way while we stilloffer lots of different options and combi-nations to our customers. With regard totechnology we supply a strong range ofgeneral machining coatings producedwith CARC+ technology, such as TiAlNand AlCrN. Additionally there arehybrid technologies on offer that createextra options for niche markets such asmachining non-ferrous metals, Ti- andNi-alloys and creating multi-layers forvarious applications. Hauzer being ableto combine options in one tool coatingmachine gives our customers the oppor-tunity to distinguish themselves fromtheir competitors and secure their ownmarket niche.”

Cutting tools need to be prepared formaterials that require special machiningqualities, such as aluminium and fibrereinforced plastics. “Our solution is ahydrogen-free diamond like carbon(DLC) coating, ta-C, that increases thelifetime of the tool,” explains Michiel.

F or years IHI Hauzer Techno Coatinghas built its reputation as a supplier

of Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD),Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapour Depo-sition (PACVD) coating technology andbatch production machines for industrialapplications. However, this image doesno longer represent today’s actual facts.Hauzer ’s technology portfolio hasbecome wider and expands rapidly intoa broad spectrum of plasma technologiesfor many kinds of applications. The batchmachines are accompanied by inline pro-duction platforms, and even completefactories including automation and han-dling are being installed. Therefore

Figure 1: Inline coating platformsincrease productivity and degree

of automation.

Hauzer has decided to make its look andcompany style reflect the new reality.

Michiel Eerden, Director of Sales atHauzer: “Batch machines do not alwayskeep up with the expectations of highproductivity equipment. Cost of owner-ship is an important deciding factor andhere we see that inline platforms have alot to offer because of their productivityincrease. Our inline platforms come witha high degree of automation. We see thattool makers are more and more lookingtowards these solutions. Our inlineequipment come in many different formsand sizes, although they have one thingin common: they all combine high pro-ductivity with the broad technologyportfolio that we built up over the yearsand are still improving upon.”

Hybrid Technologies

“Flexibility has always been a distin-guishing factor of Hauzer machines,”Michiel adds, “as well as the way webuild modular plasma coating machines.

Figure 2: Hauzer Flexicoat 1200 for hybrid technology (photo courtesy Dörrenberg Edelstahl).

“After developing our nitride coatingswith CARC+ technology, we now alsosupply ta-C coatings produced with thissame CARC+ technology. It enables ourcustomers to easily switch betweennitride coatings and ta-C and producethem both in one machine with the sametechnology. Flexibility is of the utmostimportance to our customers.”

HiPIMS

“Due to our long term expertise withcustomer specific coating development,we recognize the need for coatings thatare out of the ordinary,” says Michiel. “Itis the best way for our customers to builda unique market position. We alwaysstart with a simple question: ‘What doyou want to accomplish?’ And we startthe joint development from there. In caseof High Power Impulse Magnetron Sput-tering (HiPIMS) technology developmentthere are many opportunities with pro-grammable tuning of hardness andstress. A development that interests a lotof our customers for example is the addi-tion of HiPIMS in the production of ta-Ccoatings. We expect this will play anincreasing role in cutting and formingtools when very smooth ta-C coatings arerequired.”

Aluminium Oxide

Developments

Another promising development thatattracts a lot of interest is the use of alu-minium oxide (AlOx) coating built up inmulti-layers with nitride CARC+ coat-ings. Gabriela Negrea, process managertool coatings at Hauzer, explains: “Wehave done many tests and especiallygood results have been achieved for

machining Ti- and Ni-alloys. The distin-guishing feature here is the temperaturebarrier. Due to high corrosion resistancethe AlOx layer protects the layers under-neath from thermal effects. AlOx is achemically inert layer with a low frictioncoefficient. When for example titaniumwill be cut with a cutting tool coatedwith a titanium containing layer, the twocan react and this results in higher toolwear. The AlOx layer is a stable, inertlayer giving no reaction with the materialto be cut. We also develop multi-layercoatings combining AlOx and nitrides.This combination gives better resultswith regard to thermal cracking. You canimagine that if a small crack has devel-oped, it will have difficulties to propa-gate towards the substrate with this coat-ing architecture. In our competencecentre in Venlo we do a lot of develop-ment work on AlOx layers and we areable to produce the AlOx and nitridelayers in one machine, ensuring opti-mum productivity and flexibility.”

Michiel continues: “Hybrid coatingsoriginally started with the combinationof arc evaporation and magnetron sput-tering technology, and what has beendeveloped in the past is still improvedupon in current times. For examplelayers such as TiAlN + W-C:H showgood results in tapping. The base layerprovides hardness and the top layergives the combination its lubricationcharacteristics. It proves that every timewe find new development avenues to be

COATING /////////////////////

46 / Werkzeug Technik / NN° 162 / 25 August 2017

Figure 3: ta-C thin coating is recognizable by its rainbow colour.

Figure 4: AlOx coating used on inserts (photo courtesy Walter AG).

explored and we are always open to customer requests todo this development work together with our customers.”

Nitrocoat for Forming Tools

Nitrocoat is another such example of a hybrid technol-ogy. This specific technology combines plasma nitridingand physical vapour deposition (PVD) coating in onebatch. And it especially shows its advantages when com-plex geometries are combined with high temperaturerequirements, because of higher load bearing capacity.Ultra-high strength steels for forming tools is an exampleof such an application. Michiel: “We see it being appliedin cold forming, hydroforming and aluminium forming.Plasma nitriding gives good support to the hard coatingin these circumstances. There are no weakening whitelayers when the two technologies are combined in onebatch and a higher load bearing capacity is the result. Oneof our customers is using this technology extensively andhe is convinced it has potential beyond imagination.”

Conclusion

There are many new developments to meet the chal-lenges of the tool coating market. Inline production plat-forms combine high productivity with a broad tool coat-ing portfolio. With regard to technology there aredevelopments in ta-C produced with CARC+ and HiPIMStechnology, multi-layers of nitrides and AlOx, arc evapo-ration combined with magnetron sputtering technologyfor tapping applications and Nitrocoat in the field offorming tools. All these developments build upon astrong collaboration between the customer with his spe-cific market needs and Hauzer, the expert in tuningplasma technology to a tool maker’s or job coater’s needs.“Coating equipment suppliers mainly sell their technolo-gies off the shelf, “concludes Michiel. “We believe thattool makers and job coaters are such experts themselvesthat collaboration and adding our technologies to theirswill achieve the best possible solutions. Such coatingdevelopment can be a means to strengthen their marketposition. Please have a look at our updated websitewww.hauzer.nl and contact us if you have specific devel-opment issues you want to address.”

(16217-318)

COATING /////////////////////

Figure 5: Jianqiang Zhu, process engineer, judging the quality of multi-layers.