Specialist coatings company to show micro-thin coatings at Cologne's Professional Motorsport World show
Tecvac, the specialist coatings division of the Wallwork Group, will be demonstrating its latest advances in micro-thin coatings at the Professional Motorsport World exhibition in Cologne, Germany. The show runs from 12-14 November.
The Manchester-based company says that its new coatings improve the surface characteristics of metal components and impart greater hardness and lower friction properties. These lead to better wear resistance, provide natural lubrication and improve the performance of critical mechanical elements such as the engine, gearbox and transmission. The Group also provides computer controlled vacuum heat treatment for metal hardening and bonding.
Tecvac offers numerous materials and techniques including coatings across the full carbon spectrum, from graphite to diamond, giving resilience and lubricity. Single, multi-layer and duplex coatings, based on nitride and other materials, are also available. The coatings are typically applied to critical components such as camshafts, gearing, bearings and turbo chargers.
Precision film coatings are applied by physical vapour deposition (PVD) in a vacuum chamber, where a crucible of the coating material is vaporised by an electron beam. The component to be coated is rotated on a rack inside the chamber, so that the vaporised material condenses to produce a smooth, even coating on all surfaces. This deposition is assisted by having a negative charge on the component within a positively charged chamber. Tecvac custom-builds these machines for their own use and for universities, research organisations and other manufacturers and is a leading aerospace component processor, as well as designing and developing bespoke processes to address particular technical issues found in motor racing.
In addition to micro coating and thermal processing, the company has capabilities for vacuum brazing complex components. This process provides exceptionally strong metal-to-metal bonding using a high vacuum environment to ensure that there is no surface oxidisation.
