Hard, Wear Resistant Coatings for Die-Casting Dies by and Advanced Filtered Cathodic Arc Deposition Process

50369-98-I Hard, Wear Resistant Coatings for Die-Casting Dies by and 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: $74,996 Die wear and failure is a significant issue for the die-casting industry because of the high cost of dies, costs of disposal of scrapped dies, and 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 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 will focus on the development of multilayer A1N/TiB2 coatings using filtered cathodic arc physical vapor deposition (PVD) process, and comprehensive evaluation of coated substrates will be carried out to establish benchmark criteria for the process technology. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: If successful, the new technology will 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 commercial opportunities in other similar applications._