Physical vapor deposition (PVD) is a technology where a material is evaporated and condensed to form a thin film coating over an object (substrate). With a wide range of coating materials and
thicknesses, PVD can be customized to applications and the coatings can be optimized for various characteristics, such as decorative, optical, electrical, and mechanical properties.
Magnetron sputtering is one of PVD technique, where ionized particle bombard target surface, when energy is high enough, the target atom will be sputtered out. Magnetron sputtering has following
advantages:
PVD is used for depositing decorative films on watch casings, jewelry and furniture, as well as for functional films for moulds and dies, cutting tools, and low-friction machine parts. The process
delivers a high pass rate and good quality.
.No environmentally damaging materials and emissions, no toxic reaction products
.Great variety of coatings can be produced, most substrate can be coated
.High wear resistance, Low friction coefficient
.Coating temperature below the final heat treatment temperature of most steels
.Small, precisely reproducible coating thickness (accurate surface replication, true to size)