Hard Coatings for Heavy Duty Stamping Tools

This paper describes the development and use of new types of Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) equipment and deposition technology for thin film hard coatings on a variety of large heavy duty stamping tools. The life of the tools increased significantly, beyond the limits of the presently available coating technologies (Chemical Vapor Deposition - CVD and Thermal Diffusion - TD). The pick-up is eliminated, the surface finish of the parts is improved and the process friction is reduced. Coated stock is handled better, as well as hot rolled high strength heavy gage steel up to 10 mm. thickness. This technique allowed parts up to 725 × 725 × 250 mm. and 450 kg. to be coated, while coating of parts twice the size and mass is possible in the near future.