Hauzer (Netherlands)

The CO2 emission regulations have an increasing impact on the automotive industry, as these regulations are connected with severe penalties in case the average fleet emission is exceeding the limits for Europe, as imposed by the European Commission. These measures are enforcing the automotive industry to a significant increase in fuel efficiency. Basically, the emissions can be reduced, by reducing the wear losses in the powertrain and by reducing the weight of the cars, by using more and more plastic materials. Many of these parts do also have a decorative function and therefor are Chrome plated. As the plating process has to handle heavy poisoning liquids and consumes a lot of water, the industry is looking for green low cost alternatives. In this chapter the Cromatipic® process is introduced which combines a painting with a PVD coating and fulfils all requirements of the automotive industry for interior and exterior decorative parts. Finally will be introduced an integrated inline factory for performing the Cromatipic® process very cost effective.

The tribological operating environment for cutting tools, automotive components and biomedical implant bearing surfaces is highly challenging. An assessment of the limitations of state of the art of coated materials for use in these applications has been made. Special consideration is given to the prospects for diamond-like carbon coating materials and the requirements for future high density plasma based surface engineering technologies.