Nv Bekaert Sa

Sulzer Metaplas Gmbh

Agfa Gevaert Nv

Oerlikon Surface Solutions Ag, Pfaffikon

Oerlikon Surface Solutions Ag, Trubbach

Erik Dekempeneer

Wilmert De Bosscher

Willem Mues

Inge Schildermans

Chandra Venkatraman

Roland Groenen

Pascal Verheyen

Johan Vanbrabant

Matthew P Kirk

Jurgen Denul

Cyndi L Ackerman

Bo Hong

Matthew Kirk

A coating apparatus is revealed that is designed to coat substrates by means of a physical vacuum deposition process or a chemical vacuum deposition process or a combination thereof. Said coating apparatus is particular in that it uses a rotatable magnetron () that is coverable with an axially moveable shutter (). Such an arrangement enables to keep the magnetron target clean or to clean the target in between or even during subsequent coating steps. The shutter further provides for a controllable gas atmosphere in the vicinity of the target. The arrangement wherein the magnetron is centrally placed is described. Substrates are then exposed to the sputtering source from all angles by hanging them on a planetary carousel () that turns around the magnetron.

Sputtering apparatus

A coating apparatus () for batch coating of substrates is presented. In the batch coater layers of a stack can be deposited by means of physical vapor deposition, by means of chemical vapor deposition or by a mixture of both processes. When compared to previous apparatus, the mixed mode process is particularly stable. This is achieved by using a rotatable magnetron () rather than the prior-art planar magnetrons. The apparatus is further equipped with a rotatable shutter that allows for concurrent or alternating process steps.

Coating apparatus

The invention relates to a metal substrate coated at least partially with a layered structure. The layered structure comprises an intermediate layer deposited on the metal substrate and an amorphous carbon layer deposited on the intermediate layer. The amorphous carbon layer has a Young's modulus lower than 200 GPa. The intermediate layer comprises a tetrahedral carbon layer having a Young's modulus higher than 200 GPa. The invention further relates to a method to reduce the wear on a counterbody of a metal substrate coated with a tetrahedral carbon coating.

Substrate coated with a layered structure comprising a tetrahedral carbon layer and a softer outer layer

The invention relates to a substrate covered at least partially with a layered coating. The layered coating comprises an intermediate coating and a hard carbon coating. The intermediate coating comprises a first metal layer deposited on the substrate, the first metal layer comprising at least one element of group IVB, group VB or group VIB; a nitride layer deposited on the first metal layer, the nitride layer comprising at least one nitride of an element of group IVB, group VB or group VIB; a second metal layer deposited on the nitride layer, the second metal layer comprising at least one element of group IVB, group VB or group VIB; a transition layer deposited on the second metal layer, the transition layer comprising at least one carbide of an element of group IVB, group VB or group VIB.

Substrate covered with an intermediate coating and a hard carbon coating

The invention relates to a metal substrate () coated at least partially with a layered structure. The layered structure comprises an intermediate layer () deposited on said substrate () and a tetrahedral carbon layer () deposited on said intermediate layer. The intermediate layer comprises at least one amorphous carbon layer having a Young's modulus lower than 200 GPa and the tetrahedral carbon layer has a Young's modulus higher than 200 GPa. The invention further relates to a method to improve the adhesion of a tetrahedral carbon layer to a substrate and to a method to bridge the gap in Young's modulus of the metal substrate and the Young's modulus of a tetrahedral carbon coating deposited on said metal substrate.

Substrate coated with a layered structure comprising a tetrahedral carbon coating

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Oostmalle, Belgium

Erik Dekempeneer