Wear control coatings

NADCAP approved, high performance physical vapour deposition (PVD) coatings can help manufacturers and operators to reduce costs.

Environmentally friendly, in an era of ever increasing costs of aviation fuel and scarce material resources, anti-erosion coatings can maintain aero engines' optimised specific fuel consumption for longer, saving fuel, reducing emissions, enabling rotables to remain in operational service for longer. Wear control coatings help maximise time between overhauls (TBOs), reduce inventory costs, develop weight-saving world-class design solutions and minimise operational costs.

They are used as anti-erosion protection on various compressor stages in commercial aero engine programmes, surfaces on undercarriage bearings, actuation components, aileron control arms, bearings, control systems, fuel systems and valve components.

They are used on titanium and nickel alloy compressor rotor blades and stator vanes to reduce blade erosion from hard particles.

Wear Control Coatings allow engineers to look at less dense materials and more optimised, lower weight designs in their quest for minimising non-payload weight.

Aviation industry environmental targets for the reduction of both CO2 and NOX emissions by 2020... 50% reduction of CO2 emissions through drastic reduction of fuel consumption per passenger kilometer and 80% reduction of NOX (nitrogen oxide) emissions are ambitious.

Aero engine coatings

Aero engine coatings have played a major part in aero engine design improvements and will continue to play a significant role in future design decisions by providing economic and safety benefits to aero-engine components and aerospace components and structures.

In addition to the coating of propulsion components, PVD coatings which can enhance the performance of other aerospace parts such as bearings, seals, valves, actuation components and fasteners.

Titanium alloys have exceptional strength-to-weight ratios, good fatigue strength and outstanding corrosion resistance. However these alloys have poor tribological properties resulting in premature failure in service due to abrasive and adhesive wear.

In lightly loaded applications, the performance can be greatly improved by coating with standard PVD Titanium Nitride (TiN), however, at higher loadings the inherent softness of the substrate can result in early failure... therefore a process which can enhance the surface hardness of the Ti alloy, is required.