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The Application of Plasma Assist Chemical Vapor Deposition (PACVD) Coatings for Die Casting Dies--Materials and Electrochemical Research (MER), 7960 South Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85706-9237; 520-574-1980
Dr. S. Dimitrijevic, Principal Investigator
Dr. J.C. Withers, Business Official
DOE Grant No. DE-FG03-98ER82614
Amount: $750,000
Casting dies are not only expensive to produce in tool steels, they also fail prematurely when the dies are exposed to reactive, molten metals while operating under cyclic, mechanical, and thermal loading. Failure mechanisms include thermal-fatigue cracking, heat checking, erosion, oxidation, and soldering. Coatings have the potential to protect dies from molten metals if they are applied in an adherent, fault-free, smooth form in a composition that has corrosion resistance to molten metal. This project will develop a Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition (PACVD) process that is capable of uniformly coating complex geometries and the PACVD coatings themselves demonstrate a greater degree of protection to tool steel dies than other coating techniques. In Phase I, the ability to significantly increase the useful life of die-casting dies with PACVD was successfully demonstrated. The coatings were not wet, nor were they corroded by the reactive, molten, die-casting metal. During Phase II, the coating system will be scaled up and upgraded in order to ensure uniformity of application. The coating process will then be optimized, by testing a variety of tool steels and surface geometries under simulated die-casting operations.
Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: The PACVD coating process should have a significant economic impact by reducing the cost of components and parts, along with energy consumption and pollution, in a variety of industries. The potential market for this improvement should exceed $100 million per year.