In today's industrial production field, vacuum coating process plays a pivotal role. Among them, the common vacuum coating process can be roughly subdivided into four categories: vacuum evaporation coating, vacuum sputtering coating, vacuum ion coating and chemical vapor deposition.

These four types of vacuum coating processes each have unique advantages and distinct pertinence, and can meet the diverse needs of different products in terms of performance and appearance. For manufacturers, on the journey of pursuing development and innovation, how to accurately select the most suitable vacuum coating solution from these processes has become an unavoidable key choice.

 This is not only related to the improvement of product quality and differentiated competition, but also closely related to the company's foothold in the market and long-term development. Next, we explore the three major areas of vacuum evaporation coating, vacuum sputtering coating and vacuum ion coating, and carefully analyze their respective hidden advantages and disadvantages that can not be ignored, so as to provide a solid and reliable theoretical basis and practical guidance for enterprises to make wise decisions.

01

Vacuum evaporation coating

 Vacuum evaporation coating is a process that operates in a vacuum environment. Specifically, the use of the evaporator to heat a specific substance, prompting it to sublimate into evaporative particle flow, these particles flow directly to the substrate, and deposited on the surface of the substrate, and finally condensed to form a solid film, which is the basic principle and process of vacuum evaporation coating.

 However, vacuum evaporation coating is not perfect, it has certain shortcomings: on the one hand, there is a certain gap between the density of the film formed and the theoretical density, usually only 95% of the theoretical density, which may be limited in some applications where the density of the film is demanding; On the other hand, the adhesion between the film and the substrate is relatively small, which may affect the stability and durability of the film during use.

 In terms of the current application situation, vacuum evaporation coating has a wide range of applications in many fields.

 In the field of architectural engineering hardware, such as door and window handles, locks and other accessories, after vacuum evaporation coating treatment, not only the appearance is more beautiful and durable, but also has a certain anti-corrosion performance; Bathroom hardware, faucets, showers, etc., after coating, can improve its surface gloss and wear resistance, but also enhance its anti-fouling ability; In the watch industry, the coating of the dial, strap and other components can make it more delicate and beautiful, but also improve its anti-wear ability; In the field of hardware, such as various tools, jewelry accessories, etc., a variety of appearance effects and functional improvements can be achieved through vacuum evaporation coating; Even in wheels, stainless steel profiles, furniture, lighting equipment and hotel supplies, decorations, etc., vacuum evaporation coating also plays an important role, giving these products more excellent surface properties and decorative effects, to meet the pursuit of different consumers for product quality and beauty.

02

Vacuum sputtering coating

The principle of vacuum sputtering coating is that charged particles with high kinetic energy bombard the surface of the material, so that the material atoms obtain energy to overcome the binding force to splash out into the gas phase, that is, "sputtering" phenomenon, the process to make thin films to meet the needs of different fields.

 Its advantages are obvious: the film thickness has good controllability and repeatability, can accurately meet the high-precision production requirements, and ensure the consistency and stability of the film thickness, which is of great significance to the industry with high film thickness accuracy requirements; Strong adhesion between the film and the substrate, not easy to fall off during use, improve product stability and reliability, extend service life, suitable for products with complex forces or environments; The film layer has high purity and good quality, which is conducive to optical, electrical, magnetic and other performance, laying the foundation for high-end technology applications; It can also prepare material films with different composition from the target material, providing space for material innovation and functional expansion, and can select the target material and process parameters as required to produce films with special properties.

 However, the vacuum sputtering coating also has shortcomings: the film forming speed is slower than the vacuum evaporation coating, which affects the production efficiency and increases the cost, and the efficiency and quality need to be balanced in large-scale high-efficiency production; The substrate temperature is high during sputtering, which is a challenge for temperature-sensitive materials or products, and needs to be cooled to prevent substrate deformation, damage or performance changes; Easy to be affected by impurities gas, high requirements for vacuum environment, need to be equipped with efficient vacuum and gas purification devices; The complex structure of the device involves multi-component system coordination, which increases the manufacturing cost and maintenance difficulty, and requires high technical and knowledge requirements for operators.

 At present, magnetron sputtering technology is emerging in the field of coating and has become a commonly used sputtering technology. It uses magnetic fields to increase the probability of collisions between charged particles and gas molecules, improve the sputtering rate and deposition rate of the target, and is widely used in functional film preparation (such as optical lenses, displays, solar cells, etc.), decoration fields, microelectronics fields, providing strong support for the development of these fields and promoting the progress of related technologies.

03

Vacuum ion coating

Vacuum ion coating is an emerging technology innovated and developed on the basis of vacuum evaporation plating and sputtering coating. Its vapor deposition is carried out in the plasma environment, enabling the film particles to obtain high energy, greatly expanding the application range of the film, and bringing new opportunities. The technology has significant advantages:

01

Strong adhesion

The film layer is tightly attached to the substrate, which can resist external interference and reduce the risk of falling off, providing performance protection for products subjected to mechanical stress, wear or environmental erosion for a long time.

02

Optimal coverage

It can uniformly and completely cover the complex substrate, avoid the problem of uneven thickness and poor local coverage, and ensure the stable performance of the product, which is suitable for various shapes of the substrate.

03 High quality coating

Purity, density, organizational structure and performance uniformity are excellent, to meet the aerospace, precision electronics and other high-end areas of the reliability and stability of the parts of the strict requirements.

04

Fast film forming speed

Improving efficiency and shortening production cycle under the premise of ensuring quality has economic significance and market competitiveness, and is conducive to large-scale industrial production.

05

Optimal microstructure

The high density and small grain of the film layer give higher hardness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance and good optical properties, and expand the application range and life of the product.

 However, the vacuum ion coating also has limitations, requiring the substrate to conduct electricity, and the non-conductive substrate needs to be pre-treated by depositing conductive layers, which increases the process complexity and cost, and reduces the scope of application.

 Nevertheless, due to its excellent coating properties, the technology is widely used in many fields, such as mechanical manufacturing to improve the wear and corrosion resistance of parts; Ensure the performance of airframe and engine components in aircraft manufacturing; Resist sea water erosion, reduce cost and extend life; Optimization of component performance and appearance in the automotive industry; The improvement of processing performance in the field of tools and superhard molds has strongly promoted the development of the manufacturing industry.