Surface engineering

“A key element to remain competitive”

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■  Surface coatings, whether for their anti-corrosion or anti-wear functions, remain a major and constant concern for many industrial sectors.

■  Decisive factors in material performance, surface coatings represent a wealth of technological innovations. For many companies, any delay in being aware of this progress can result in rapid loss of competitiveness.

■  Anti-wear and anti-corrosion are the first functions researched with surface coatings; processes are becoming multi-functional in order to provide thermal protection, tri-biological and tactile properties too. The treatments reduce contact pressure, lower the friction co-efficient, increase superficial hardness and resistance to oxidation and give particular electromagnetic properties.

■  In addition, the field of organic paints and coatings is experiencing many technical upheavals due to the effect of environment constraints. In Europe and the United States, restrictions of Volatile Organic Compounds – with emission reductions of up to 70% – along with the obligation to treat effluents, are leading to rapid development of new ecological solutions (power or water soluble paints). In the automobile field in particular, evolution is very rapid; work carried out by the USCAR Consortium, which groups together the three main American car manufacturers, on paint and application materials proves this.

■  In recent years, ecological legislation has been stepped up, pushing forward alternative techniques using dry methods (vacuum or thermal projection techniques), although electro-chemical, thermal and thermo chemical coatings remain by far the most common. In fact, traditional processes have been improved to become cleaner, and this has slowed down, and continues to do so, industrial applications of new depositing technologies (x-PVD, x-CVD, thermal projection, plasmas, high-speed depositing), which are little used on an industrial scale.

■  Whether they treat metallic, plastic, composite or ceramic substrates, industrial players concerned have to anticipate and choose the most relevant technical and economic solution at the right moment, in a field where heavy investments are generally amortised over several decades.

■  For these companies, Innovation 128 has been conducting, since 1992, a Technological Watch Programme, TechWatch, in which over one hundred companies have taken part to date.

Main themes

■  Preparation of surfaces

  • wet method
  • dry method
  • shot blasting

■  Vacuum depositing

  • diamond and carbon depositing
  • ceramic depositing
  • metallic depositing
  • processes and equipment

■  Thermal projection

  • metallic depositing
  • ceramic depositing
  • recharging and post-treatments
  • processes and equipment

■  Treatments by wet methods for their anti-wear and anti-corrosion functions

  • electrolytic coatings
  • chemical coatings
  • conversion treatments

■  Thermo-chemical treatments

  • by diffusion
  • by structural transformation

■  Highly resistant organic paints and coatings

  • water paints or with weak solvent levels
  • powder paints
  • implementation processes

■  Pollution control, hygiene and safety

  • pollution control treatments
  • norms and regulations