The TD coating works extremely well when an adhesive and/or abrasive types of wear are present. The coating can be applied to dies used in both short and long production runs and can be considered as a unique “problem solver” to remedy specific manufacturing problems. Notably, TD performs well in high volume production and also when using thicker gauge materials, High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steels, plated steels, stainless steels and aluminium. Although every application has different dynamics acting on the tool, more than 5-10 times increase in part life is common. Typical applications in which exceptional performances have been obtained, are given in the accompanying table. The TD coating is extremely hard and virtually any application that requires exceptional wear resistance as well as resistance to seizure/ galling, can benefit from the coating. The coating has very high seizure resistance even compared to cemented carbides and it has a very low coefficient of friction. The hard surface layer also does not reduce the toughness of the underlying steel.
The TD coating is also used in hot applications and coated cores, pins and inserts used in the aluminium die casting industry show excellent performance, reducing maintenance and downtime.
It is important to note that in all applications, the TD coating performs best when mated with the correct steel in the correctly heat treated condition. When considering base materials see the following table , but it is also recommended to speak to your TD specialist.
The TD coating also performs very well on cutting blades and knives for the metal, paper, plastic and rubber industries, guides in the textile and metal industries, pump components and machine parts such as cams, plungers, sleeves, bushes, nozzles and valves.
TD has a friction co-efficient better than hard chrome and offers excellent sliding properties. In the correct application, TD will outperform any other coating or surface modification.
What the Vanadium Carbide layer does
Why and how does the VC layer work in tooling applications? Hardness adds abrasive wear resistance TD coating, which is actually Vanadium Carbide, creates a surface layer of 5 – 10 µm with a surface hardness far superior to many other surface hardening techniques, as shown in the hardness comparison chart. High hardness resists abrasion directly and prevents the work material from ploughing or cutting the surface of the steel.
Chemical make-up and finish adds adhesion resistance
It is well known that vanadium is added as an alloy to many high performance tool steels and powder metallurgical steels in order to form fine vanadium carbide particles held in the steel. These fine carbides increase the wear performance of steels significantly. With TD Coating, a pure, dense layer of 100% Vanadium Carbide is formed on the surface…. exactly where you need it.
When TD Coating is applied to the surface of a highly polished tool, not only does its hardness protect the highly finished surface, the coefficient of friction is also remarkably reduced. In metal forming, this promotes an easier draw of the work material and in many cases has reduced material thinning and splitting problems experienced on deep draws. The simple fact that the coating is made of inert carbide, means that the adhesive tendencies of the work material to bond to the tool, are vastly reduced.
To view a gallery of coated applications …. please click here …Gallery