Archer Technicoat Ltd - CVD Specialists | Silicone Carbide (SiC) Coating | Zirconium Boride Coating

ATL designs & manufactures a variety of CVD and CVI coating equipment. ATL has a proven track record of supplying and installing equipment in customer’s plant worldwide.

Complete turnkey systems
Part systems
Upgrades for old systems
Software & programming
Consumables
Spares
Support & service

ATL develops, designs & builds all types of CVD reactor. These range in size from experimental tube reactors 50mm in diameter to production reactors up to 2m in diameter. ATL markets and builds its full systems in partnership with Ionbond AG. IonBond are a worldwide coating specialist company with its HQ in Olten, Switzerland.ATL specialises in production CVD reactors in 2 main areas:

1. High Temperature, low pressure (HT-LP) reactors for production of ceramic coatings and ceramic matrix composite materials (CMCs).

2. IVA & CVA branded reactors for aluminising of nickel superalloy turbine components.

High Temperature – Low Pressure CVD (1000 -2200ºC)

HT-LP Units have a cold vacuum chamber with an internal all-graphite heater system capable of operating up to 2200ºC in a halide atmosphere.

Systems can do either CVD to produce full density ceramic coatings from a few microns thick up to 1mm or more, or Chemical vapour infiltration (CVI) to produce ceramic matrix composite materials with high final densities.

Used particularly for the production of pyrolytic graphite, boron nitride, silicon carbide & silicon nitride.

Fully automatic PC & PLC based control systems are standard.
Standard designs ranging from 150mm to 2000mm diameter & up to 2.5m high hot zones.

The vacuum pumping system has an integral exhaust gas-neutralising system

Chemical Vapour Aluminising (CVA) & Isobaric Vapour Aluminising (IVA) (900- 1150ºC)

CVA & IVA units reactors primarily for aluminising of nickel superalloy turbine components. Siliconising and HF cleaning add-on modules are also available.
CVA units operate using an aluminium chloride source external to the reactor and are particularly suited for coating of internal passages of components.
IVA units operate the above pack coating process with a fluoride activator.
Systems are supplied with either pit or bell type furnaces.
Larger systems are supplied ‘double-pumped’ so that there is no pressure difference across the reactor hot wall.
Standard designs ranging from 500mm to 1000mm diameter & up to 2m high hot zones.

A second retort can be added to increase capacity.

Fully automatic PC & PLC based control systems are standard.
The vacuum pumping system has an integral exhaust gas-neutralising system.

Many materials are produced by CVD or use CVD & CVI as a step in their manufacturing process. The examples given here are just a very few of the many available.

CVD coatings can be produced in a thickness ranging from nanometers to millimetres. Thick layers can be removed from their substrates to leave free-standing thin-walled shapes.

In the production of Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs), very thin protection layers are deposited on the preform fibres by CVI. These layers protect the preform from the subsequent densification processes which include CVI.

ATL specialises in High Temperature CVD:

• In-house coating service for SiC, Si3N4, pyrolytic C, B13C2
• Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC) preform fibre protection inter-layers by CVI: pyC, BN, Si-doped BN
• Production of CMCs by CVI: pyC, SiC, AlN

Thick coatings up to several millimetres thick can be deposited by CVD in relatively short periods. If the substrate or mandrel is them removed either chemically or physically, you are left with a free-standing coating. This makes possible the fabrication of thin walled component in materials such as BN, SiC, pyC, W, W/Re not possible by other techniques. ATL manufactures crucibles, boats, tubes, heating elements, thermo-wells and other shapes by this method

ATL undertakes a variety of research and development projects. ATL has a long history of participating in European Framework projects.

Commercial contracts are undertaken for industrial customers over a wide spectrum of projects:

• Small-scale, bench top research on new materials
• Transfer of experimental coatings to real applications
• Transfer of existing technologies to new applications
• Scale up of existing technologies to larger applications.
• Feasibility and design studies.

ATL undertakes R&D contracts for industrial companies. A typical programme might be to design and assemble a bench-scale piece of CVD equipment. Many parts may already be available at ATL. This piece of equipment would then be operated over a number of experiments with varying deposition equipment. The resulting coatings are analysed. Thickness can be measured by rotating ball wear test. Microscopy and cross sections are prepared in house. More detailed analysis, such as SEM & EDAX, is done at nearby Brunel University.

Samples of optimised coatings are delivered to the customer for further testing.

Many of these contract are carried out under a secrecy agreement, but recent examples are Reaction Engines & JET-EFDA.

Variations on the CVD Process

CVD Periodic Table

Materials Available as CVD Coatings

Applications of CVD Coatings

Download:

Material Datasheets
Equipment Datasheets
CVD Periodic Table
ATL Presentation
CVD Presentation

ATL Presentation (Flash voice-over version)

CVD Presentation (Flash voice-over version)

Specialist & consultant in the fields of Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) and materials technology. CVD and it's associated process Chemical Vapour Infiltration can be used to make a wide variety of surface coatings and materials with an even wider range of applications.

Fields of Activity:

medical
electronic
semiconductor
aerospace
automotive
nuclear power (fission & fusion)
rocketry.

John Yeatman’s Specialties:

Tribological solutions: Corrosion, erosion, oxidation, radiation.
Materials in extreme environments: temperature, pressure, chemical, radiation.
Expert Witness
Coating plant design
Ceramic matrix composites, design, selection & testing

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