Development of scratch- and corrosion-resistant coatings on stainless steel surfaces

我们的合作伙伴正在寻找一种方法来提高其不锈钢餐具产品线的耐用性和美观性，方法是开发一种硬质涂层，使用物理气相沉积(PVD)系统将其应用于产品表面。目前，他们的产品作为未涂覆的不锈钢出售，导致产品表面在加工过程中或经常使用时容易被划伤或损坏。 主要的研究挑战是开发涂层工艺的参数空间(即确定蒸气压力、温度、沉积时间、气体流量比等与涂层质量的关系)，使我们能够创建(S)优化涂层硬度、附着力、颜色和指纹抗性的配方(S)。有必要研究适当的基材制备和清洗以及多步骤涂层工艺的开发，以确保获得尽可能好的最终涂层。材料摩擦学测试和分析将在沉积运行之间对各种原型涂层进行，以进一步细化参数空间。

Our partner is looking for a way to improve both the durability and aesthetics of their stainless steel tableware product line by developing a hard coating to apply to the product's surface using a physical vapour deposition (PVD) system. Currently, their products are sold as uncoated stainless steel, resulting in a surface that is prone to being scratched or damaged during processing or from regular use of the product. The main research challenge is to develop a parameter space for the coating process (i.e. determining how vapour pressures, temperatures, deposition times, gas flow ratios, etc. are related to coating quality) that will enable us to create (a) recipe(s) that optimize(s) the hardness, adhesion, colour, and fingerprint resistance of the coatings. Research concerning proper substrate preparation and cleaning and the development of multi-step coating processes will be necessary to ensure the best possible final coating is achieved. Material tribology testing and analysis will be conducted on the various prototype coatings between deposition runs to further refine the parameter space.