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 2007/4/19
"Inspiring-TiC" coating extends service life of press dies
-New process yields high-precision dies with excellent
wear resistance
Toyo Advanced Technologies Co., Ltd. (Head
Office: Minami-ku, Hiroshima; President: Yasuto Tatsuta) has developed
and commenced full-scale marketing of a new Inspiring-TiC coating
(patent pending) for press dies. TiC (titanium carbide) is already widely
used with chemical vapor deposition (CVD), but the new process uses physical
vapor deposition (PVD) to form a TiC coating at low temperature. This
yields a die with excellent dimensional accuracy and wear resistance.
CVD and PVD are the two most common methods for applying vapor deposited
hard coating layers to press dies. CVD provides good coating adhesion
and excellent coverage of complex die configurations, but requires high
temperatures of around 1000°C. PVD provides somewhat inferior coating
adhesion and coverage, but can be applied at relatively low temperatures
of 500°C or less, and so enables high dimensional stability because there
is less thermal malformation. Although the post-coating service life of
a die is better with CVD, the use of PVD for coating press dies is increasing
due to its better accuracy.
Of the available coating materials, TiC is very hard, has good lubrication
properties, and is often used for high-load applications such as press
dies for high-tensile steel.
Features
of Inspiring-TiC
1. Quick transfer of finished dies to the assembly
line
- PVD's low coating temperature means that, unlike with CVD, no post-coating
heat treatment is required.
Advantages over CVD coating include the following.
[1] The coating can be applied quickly.
[2] The precise shape of each die is maintained, so no readjustment
is needed.
[3] The precise shape of press dies products is also high.
As a result, CVD coating makes it possible to manufacture products with
high dimensional stability that can be transferred quickly to the assembly
line.
2. Extended service life
- PVD achieves poorer adhesion of TiC to the die base material than
CVD, so a high-adhesion layer is applied first. A hard, highly lubricating
single surface layer of TiC, just a few micrometers thick, is then applied
on top of this. Hardness is a distinguishing feature of the Inspiring-TiC coating process. The TiC used is 1.3 times as hard as P-TiCN (titanium
carbide nitride)ﾑone of the hardest materials used for conventional
PVD coatingsﾑmaking TiC exceptionally hard wearing. TiC adhesion strength
is also 1.3 times that of P-TiCN. Certain manufacturers have already
begun durability testing of the new coating on mass-production dies,
and good results have been reported.
Toyo Advanced Technologies is active in three business sectors: machine
tools, where it is the Japanese market leader in internal grinding machines;
surface processing; and automotive components. Toyo was the first company
in Japan to introduce CVD coatings in 1968, and today is actively developing
new PVD coating products. The development of the new Inspiring-TiC
coating is part of this process. In March 2007, an expanded furnace for
Inspiring-TiC coating went into operation at Toyo's Nagoya Plant.
Toyo will exhibit panels and other samples demonstrating its Inspiring-TiC coating capabilities at Intermold 2007 (booth number 511, East Hall
5), to be held at Tokyo Big Sight from April 25, 2007.
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