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Hard, Wear Resistant Coatings for Die-Casting Dies by an Advanced Filtered Cathodic Arc Deposition Process--UES, Inc., 4401 Dayton-Xenia Road, Dayton, OH 45432-1805; 937-426-6900
Dr. Deepak G. Bhat, Principal Investigator
Mr. Francis F. Williams, Jr., Business Official
DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-98ER82702
Amount: $749,838
Wear of die-casting dies is a significant problem due to the high cost of the dies themselves, the disposal costs of scrapped dies, and the attendant loss of productivity. The important failure modes of die casting dies are erosive and abrasive wear, thermal fatigue, soldering, and corrosion. These problems lead to significant disadvantages in terms of product quality and manufacturing competitiveness for the U.S. Die-Casting Industry. A cost-effective process for surface hardening and coating of die-casting dies will be developed using a novel, filtered cathodic arc deposition technology. The multi-layer graded coatings will be tailored to address the significant issues of thermal fatigue and erosion, with the aim of successfully developing a commercial process. Phase I involved initial surface hardening by ion nitridation followed by the deposition of multi-layer coatings based on Ti, TiCN, and TiBN. The process was based on the filtered arc technique and was developed and tested in simulated die-casting conditions. The coatings performed significantly better than those from currently used coating/surface modification processes. Phase II will optimize the coating process for multi-layer hard coatings and evaluate the optimized coatings on dies in an actual use environment. In order to produce an adherent interface, the die surface initially will be tailored by energetic ion bombardment.
Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: The new hardening technology should significantly improve industrial productivity in the die-casting process, reduce the environmental costs of disposal and fossil energy usage, and provide advanced deposition and equipment technology for other commercial applications.