Technological development of PVD hard coatings for industry

The four main areas of development of physical vapor deposition (PVD) techn ology, applications, coatings, sources and equipment are reviewed. PVD has become state of the art in applications like tool coating, coating of compo nents and also decorative coatings. The drivers for development are the sea rch for higher performance coatings and higher productivity of coating syst ems. Additionally PVD is an environmentally friendly technology and coating s help to preserve our environment, e.g., no harmful by-products result fro m the process, coatings enable dry machining. Coating of tools is the most important application of PVD today but in some years the coating of compone nts in engines, pumps or gears will be as important. In these applications coatings help to improve fuel efficiency, reduce weight of components and i ncrease reliability. Because of the high volume of such components, coating cost is a major concern. A new concept for a high volume coating system is presented.