© E308-01-1

Pvd

Pvd

Well known standard coatings like binary nitrides, carbides and borides of early transition metals soon reach their limitations due to the every growing field and complexity of applications. Therefore application oriented development of coatings, which exhibit and combine specific properties, has attracted increasing interest in modern coating industry. Consequently, there is a massive and collective move in coating industry towards the use of ternary, quarternary and even multinary nitrides, to be followed by carbides, borides, oxides, and oxynitrides. As the complexity of coatings (e.g., development of individual phases and structure) grows with the number of components (atomic elements), future progress in this field requires knowledge-based design-concepts of the coatings and especially of the targets and deposition techniques used.

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coated materials

coated materials

Design of Coatings, will use state-of-the-art computational materials science techniques to design new coating materials involving density functional theory (calculation of lattice parameters, elastic constants in various directions, thermal properties, band structure and electron energy loss near edge structure) and continuum mechanical approaches (calculation of strain gradients due to different morphologies, architectures and phase arrangements as well as combinations). These techniques will be used to precisely predict, but also to offer explanations of materials properties, behavior and processing.

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surface coating

surface coating

The experimental development of coatings and deposition processes is also worked out. Not only different coating materials are being developed, but also different architectures (e.g. combination of layers, phases and gradients). These investigations are supported by Computational Materials Science. Equally essential is the development of the required deposition process (e.g. parameter development, reactive and/or non-reactive, arc evaporation and/or sputtering). ) and target materials (e.g. chemical composition, density and structure).The aspects concerning changes and interactions in coatings due to thermal, chemical, and mechanical attack are major concerns for the design and development of coatings, we will also concentrate on developing or improving sophisticated investigation techniques to allow for application near characterization.
 

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picture of hardness indentation

picture of hardness indentation

In a practical part of the research, tools and components are coated with the most promising materials and tested under practical conditions. Application-related test series are also related to those under operating conditions.

Overall, the research here heralds a new era for targeted design, needs-based development and testing of new materials and coatings.