Optimisation of manufacturing processes in mechanical engineering which inv
olve working temperatures higher than 600 degreesC and high surface loads,
e.g. pressure die-casting, hot extrusion and hot forging, is today under in
tensive investigation worldwide. Traditional production procedures and the
enormous quantities of products in these industries are serious limitations
to the introduction of any kind of improvement to moulds, tools and dies w
ith PVD coatings and duplex treatment. Thus, the simulation of selected tri
bo-systems is practically impossible and any performance testing of new tec
hnologies must therefore be carried out in real industrial manufacturing. I
n this paper we discuss the properties of surface improvements relevant to
these topics, These comprise PVD CrN, TiAlN and FUTURA TiN/TiAlN multilayer
coatings, and duplex treatments, including plasma nitriding (PN) and all t
hree PVD coatings. We studied the applications of CrN, PN + CrN and PN + Ti
AlN in aluminium pressure die-casting, CrN in hot extrusion of Al and FUTUR
A and PN + FUTURA coating in hot forging of steel parts. Performance tests
were carried out in various industrial plants in Slovenia. The results show
that an improvement in tool or die life (cost saving) of up to several 100
% is not the decisive factor. More important for these traditional industri
es are better reproducibility of the surface quality of the products, an in
crease in the manufacturing reliability in heavy machining, a decrease in m
anufacturing interruption (down-time) and finally, the protection of the en
vironment. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.