In discussions with customers, SMS group has repeatedly identified the desire for a coating process that can overcome the limitations and disadvantages of existing processes. These include the high process temperatures in hot-dip galvanizing, the formation of hydrogen during electroplating and the particularly high demands on the appearance of the coatings.
Many manufacturers also consider it important to switch their production processes to environmentally friendly methods.
As a result of these discussions, SMS group realized that vacuum coating is a technology that can solve these problems. It enables cold coating, produces no by-products and allows individual layer design. Coating with NEOVAC technology does not result in any loss of material properties, for example due to overheating or hydrogen embrittlement.
In addition to avoiding problems, vacuum coating offers further advantages, such as the possibility of targeted layer design. This allows coating packages to be applied that not only optimize the corrosion protection properties, but also other product properties such as formability and joinability.
To accomplish this task, NEOVAC GmbH and SMS group have jointly developed a pilot plant on an industrial scale. The plant, which weighs 170 tons, can process steel coils with a strength of up to 1900 MPa and a width of 650 mm. These specifications were chosen in order to be able to develop the process on an industrial scale. Thanks to the decades of experience of NEOVAC employees, scaling up the coating to a width of 1,700 mm or more is no challenge.
It was very helpful for NEOVAC GmbH to approach this task as a greenfield project without existing restrictions. This meant that all solution strategies could be reconsidered and implemented in a future-oriented manner to enable a system for a forward-looking, economical coating process with low costs. Today, NEOVAC GmbH is in a position to coat test material from interested customers and thus demonstrate the potential of this pioneering process.