PLATIT custom coating solution for PVD coating of saw bands
Saw bands are tools that rely on special conditions for coating. The long bands are wound on a tool carrier, the coil. Coating these special steel bands requires vacuum coating chambers specially designed for this type of tools.
When it comes to coating, saw bands also present challenges in terms of coating thickness. To coat the bands, the coils usually have to be unwound and placed in the vacuum chamber in an orderly manner. However, due to varying distances to the target, inconsistent layer growth could occur on parts of the saw band. But this must be avoided at all costs.
How we solved the problems associated with the coating of saw bands
In years of development work, PLATIT has incorporated the special features of saw band coating into a custom coating unit. This unit offers excellent solutions for the various problems.
- The coil is arranged at a certain angle to the target. To improve handling, the coating chamber door opens by moving sideways; the open chamber door can be swiveled 90° for left-side loading and unloading.
- For uniform coating, the teeth and the back of the saw band are coated with different types of cathodes.
- The LGD® (Lateral Glow Discharge) process is used for etching and improved coating adhesion.
- The coating process takes place at a temperature of max. 500°C to ensure that the physical and chemical properties of the saw band remain unchanged.
- By coating the saw blades in this way, both an increase in service life and cutting performance during sawing is achieved. The development of wear on the saw band is significantly reduced by the carefully selected coating materials.
Example: Pi603 saw band coating unit for WIKUS
The traditional German company WIKUS has been manufacturing saw bands in various metal and coating qualities since 1958. The Pi603 is the first in-house PVD unit for WIKUS. The unit was built in 2006 and is still performing its coating operations perfectly to this day.
To meet the product-specific requirements of WIKUS, we designed a special turnkey system:
- Customized single chamber cleaning unit
- Cleaning and coating of the saw bands as coils wound on the same goods carrier to avoid additional charging effort
- PVD coating unit working in high vacuum
- Simple operation, also suitable for customers with little experience
Our concept has proven to be very user-friendly. In accordance with the open-source principle, we have passed on our know-how to WIKUS so that the company can benefit from the advantages of the LARC® cathodes and flexibly compose layers or develop its own coatings.