Hardide Coatings has made a significant technological breakthrough by successfully developing a new Hardide coating process specifically for titanium. The tungsten carbide-based coatings company has successfully coated its first titanium components for customers in the UK and US, and components manufactured from titanium can now benefit from the unique wear, abrasion and chemical resistant properties of Hardide.
Dr Yuri Zhuk, Technical Director of Hardide said: “Titanium is often used in performance-critical, high load-bearing and weight sensitive environments that are ideally suited to Hardide’s unique combination of properties. However, it is a technically challenging material and suffers from intense galling which limits its use in conjunction with traditional coating methods such as titanium surface oxidising, spray coatings and plating. Coating with Hardide has prevented titanium galling and has shown an excellent load-bearing capacity with an absence of wear, even under high load. Furthermore, Hardide demonstrates strong coating adhesion and doesn’t require grinding to finish. The ability to coat titanium with Hardide will open up a range of new possibilities for engineering design.”
The titanium project has been in research and development for five years but has been fast-tracked over the last twelve months to meet increasing customer demand from the aerospace, defence and Formula 1 industries.
The company is now processing small scale commercial applications for customers in these sectors and plans to treat regular batches of volume parts later this year.