Carbide coating has many useful applications. It can be used in situations where your workholding is slipping. Adding a significant amount of grip. It is also useful when excessive wear is occurring. A thin coating of carbide can significantly increase the life of the part.
Our coating permanently bonds the carbide to the steel surface. It will not chip or flake off. Think of it as a micro welding process. Our process applies carbide very consistently. The low temperature of the process ensures that there is no distortion of the work piece. With almost no runout of the working surface with some grades of coating. We can apply different coating thicknesses and roughness to meet your needs.
Carbide Coating Grades Thickness Ra ~ Best Application (TIR total indicated runout)
.0003 (.0076mm) 50 Wear
.001 (.025mm) 70 Wear, grip without marking part held by workholding
.0015 (.038mm) 125 Grip with minor marking of part held by workholding
.002 (.05mm) 250 Grip with minor marking of part held by workholding
.0025 (.064mm) 500 Grip with moderate marking of part (TIR ~.0005)
.005 (.13mm) 600 Heavy grip (TIR compromised) gripping bar stock
.01 (.25mm) 750 Heavy grip (TIR compromised) gripping bar stock
For example, carbide coating .002 thick was applied to an ID chucking collet. Before coating the TIR was .00005. After coating it was .0001. The workholding ability was increased 300% and the life of the collet was increased by 250%. The customer’s slipping problem was eliminated with a reduction of tooling costs.