In-House Coating versus Job Coating Service - PLATIT

In-House Coating versus
Job Coating Service
I Fve Axis Ma(h ninS
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I ToolCoal ig
I E0l\4 Slrategies
I CAD/CAf/]
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Advanced C oatin g Systems
swrsslYouALrTY
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O Cart HanserVerlag, München.2005. Att fights including reprinting. photographic reproduchon and
rlanslahon reserved by the pubLishers.

In-House Coating
versus Job Coating Service
I Tibor Cse[Le
SmalL ond medium-sized high-tech-componies who integrate
coating in their own production benefit from many advantages
such as higher product quality, more autonomy and reduced
cosß which result in higher profiß. >AIL leading tooL producers
con handle cutting mateial and geometty. The ones, who use
the best coating technoLogies, wilL have the biggest shares on
the high-tech morket< [2]. That is why the way of masscoating
cannot be the way to future for high-tech SMEs.
The policy of cheap mass-coating cannot I Has the job coater been making an
be the future for srnatt and medium-sized extra profit for himself, from my
high-tech-companies (Sit4 E). Those who pocket?
integrate coating in their own produc- I If prices fatt this tow, does it stj[[
tion benefit from many advantages such make sense to have an own coating
as higher product quality, more autonomy
and reduced costs. Sf4Es who ptan
centre?
on integrating coating in their mechanic The answer for the first question is obvi-
manufacturing can count on an immedious. To answer the second question, the
ate advantage. Job coaters wjt[ visit mechanical engineer needs to find an-
them soon and lower their prices (usuatswers to more questjons. This artjcte tries
ly around 30 per cent) >exclusivety< for to summarize these questions and an-
them. After the visit, two questions will swers in the perspective of smatt- and
come up immediatety:
medium-sized enterprises (S!1Es).
Fig. 1. Integration of coating into the mechanicaI production p,o-
cess of a service oriented company,
swlss euAL ry pRoDUcr on jl aucusr zoos
Job 6aiing in l6rge unitg
Can SMES reatly coat wiihout prior experiences
and without a Ph.D. physicist? The
answer is: Yes. Numerous examples of
smat[ and medium-sized toot-manufacturers,
regrinders. mold and die makers, injection
motders, machine producers and
even of tool t.aders show thaL integraLion
of coaLing in Lhe mechanical production is
state of the art (Fig. 1) [6 and 7].
SMEs can easily coat
without prior experiences
Can Si\'.1Es produce quality-coatings with
constant composition, [ayer thickness, and
cotor? In the own coating-shop the tooß
are not coated together with foreign toots
or even with totatty different parts jn the
same batch. 50 the layer thjckness, composifion
and even the choice of coating
does not depend on what are currentty running
in thejob coating centre (Fig. 2). For
S14Es onty compad and flexible coating
units can be considered. These have to be
abte to produce every coating that is avail
abte on the market. At the same time productivity
ofthjs compact machine has to be
high, so that up to six different coatings
can be deposited in a day (Fig.3).sMEs can
also deposit special coatings according to
special apptications or even generate own
brands wjth the hetp of the own in-house
coating, as shown in Fig.4 and 5.
Do SMEs have an answer shoutd the big
job coaters come to the market with
newty developed coatings? The answer:
! The S[4E shou[d be very careful when
buying a coaLing sysrem from machine
TiAICN+DLC: GRADVIC!
Fig. 2. Main difference between treatment of tools by job coaters
and in-house €oaters,

PFPrcdLdMIyftdot
Fig. 3. Comparing
productivity of
coating units with
different PVD technoloqies.
Source:
Pretat
Fig. 6. Mitting of
gears with conven-
tional and nanocomposite
coatings,
shorter delivery time than job coaters
normally offer (2 to 14 days)? With best
logistics and express-service job coaters
cannot coat most urgent parts in hours.
Delivery time for coatings
can be reduced to 24 hours
The typicat time of detivery is a week
(job coating for SMEs) which can be reduced
to 24 hours (in-house coating).
Through the jntroductjon of a minimum
order quantity job coaters show more
and more that they are not actuatly
interested in sma[[ customers. The total
of needed toots has to be two to three
times higher than a weeks suppty
because of job coaters. Therefore inhouse
coating can reduce storage costs
significantly. There is a risk for damages
or mix-ups at packing and unpacking to
and from the job coater to occur. With
in-house coating these activities are unnecessary.
Experience shows that personnel
costs of in-house coating do not
exceed costs those for logistics of job
c0aters.
But what about the foltowing question:
Does the company have probtems with
manufacturers which run job coating
centres in the same country. He has to MANUFACTURER
, cobalt-leaching at recoated toots? With
in-house coating, the optimaI productjon
ask for a contract assuring that he atso PLATIT AG
', cycl.e for reground toots can be mainobtains
atl new devetopments of the
manufacturers immediately. otherwise
the machine manufacturer wou[d
CH-2540 Grenchen
Phone +47/32/6 54 26 00
Fax +4r/32/6 54 26 83
::..
:.r:
,
tained: Decoat - Regrind - Recoat. Therefore
the dangerof cobatt-teaching by decoating
is being etiminated. Usuatty at
naturatty prefer his own job coating
centres.
www.ptatit.com
"'
job coating, regrinding precedes decoating
and recoating.
I The compact system which SiVEs buy
has to compty with the latest tech- technologies, with Larger companies hav- And do SMEs want to determine the preniques
r'n coatjng technotogy. ing to catch up later. Do SMEs need a treatment for active surfaces and E
: An investment in current technotogy
is better than buying conventional
systems: The potential for devetopment
of standard and dominant AtTiN-
600
tayers is limited physicalty [4 and 7].
500 Source: Schl€nk€r,tool g nder, Böblhgen
These borders can be crossed with
nanocomposite layers [1, 3 and 7]. These
400
are already being produced by LARCtechnotogy
by Si\4Es in rnore than 35
300
I
compact-systems worldwide.
Practice shows that leading job coaters
200
had to come up with new coatings be-
100
cause of the SMEs' new coatings (as
demonstrated jn Fig. 6).
0
calldus -AlTiN lgneus -
This fact is not a new phenomenon in
nenocomposite
mechanicaI engineering. Innovative SMEs Fig. 4. Creation of new nanocomposite-coatings and private brands by SME with the help of
develop and manufacture new products or their in-house coating - Mitl.ing of high al.toyed steel X4OCrMoV5. Source: Unimerco
iwr5s erra-rrw oFoDLcrror !
nrr,rs, zoo"

cutting edges on their own? Wett, since
job coaters cannot know the surface
consistency of various objects, usuatly
they micro-btast a[[ toots to avoid bad
coating adhesion. This can negative[y
affect the functional efficiency of finishing
precision toots, which need sharp
cutting edges. The performance of toots
often depends on the speciat configuration
of cuttjng edges, die geometries or
contact surfaces, and the [ike. 0f course,
Si\4Es do not like to give away their sma[[
and big secrets. But their competitors
often make audits at the job coaters. At
in-house coating, the SiVEs can take care
of their own toots and surety about their
optimaI pretreatment to 100 per cent.
Fig. 7. Ftexible usage of LARC compact-systems with rotating cathodes for coating special
substrates with highest requirements and performance.
Job coaters sti[[ have profits
in spite of price reductions
send the parts for coating onty when
coating is absotutely necessary. For that
they do not rnake much money. In-house
In spite of massive price reductions, job coatjng automaticatty generates setf-
coaters sti[ have good profits. Through profit, new parts to coal and therefore
increased competition, job coaters lower
prices. There are job coaters who openty
business volume (Fig. 1).
say that they onty offer basic coatings, >A[[ leading tool producers can hand[e cut-
but for a mjnimal price. This means comting materiaI and geometry. The ones, who
petition for mass-coaters, but not for use the best coating technotogies, witl
Sf4Es who have to achieve outstanding have the biggest shares on the high-tech
tool performance (Fig. 7). Because of the
disadvantages of job coating, SMEs often
market< [2]. That is why the way of masscoating
cannot be the way to future for
o lnhq ih€ slE orrh. A3ao,
arrbur, Broughlü, Nonh walos, uK,
Mat.: CFC/AI .atbm ibrc
T6lr:solldcalbrß ddlb - rF1{}12 hh
N.nocompsfi. C7 coar€d by unrmerco, lK
Fig. 5, Creation of new nanocomposite-coatings and private brands by SME with the hetp of their
in-house coating - Drilting of sandwi.h materiat CFC/AL
sw rs oJA-r,y DRoDLcrror.r
@
oi,c,-,s,
:oo.
Micro punching
widr GRADVIC@
ctiAtcN+DLc)
HSc{eamins wlth nACCP
lnjectjon mouldins TicrN
high-tech small and medium-size enterprises.
If the future oriented 5ME-owner or
its Chief executive officer answers most of
these questions with )yes