Ceramic Coatings
Anilox Roller Coatings
Anilox rollers used in the printing industry are usually metal cylinders coated with ceramic layer, which is laser engraved to contain millions of ink pickup cells. Most commonly thermally sprayed Cr2O3 coating is used to produce the ceramic layer.
The quality of Anilox rollers is measured by two factors, density of cells in Lines Per Inch (LPI) and susceptibility to wear (hardness). Both high and low quality Anilox rollers are still manufactured and used in different printing applications. Axial III can produce any required Cr2O3 coatings with controlled porosity with substantial cost benefits.
Highly dense, hard, and crack-free coatings (porosity lower than 1%) that allow engraving densities higher than 2000 LPI can be routinely and reproducibly manufactured. In this case Axial III benefits include:
- high deposition efficiency = powder savings
- high spray rates = short manufacture time and higher throughputs
- smooth as-sprayed surface = less finishing time and materials
- superior hardness = longer lifetimes
In cases where properties of the coatings are compromised for manufacture of low end hardware Axial III also offers substantial benefits, mostly due to significant reduction of the time of manufacture. This is due to:
- high spray rates = short manufacture time and higher throughputs
- smooth as-sprayed surface = less finishing time and materials
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Functional Ceramic Coatings
Mettech has extensive experience in the development of application-specific coatings with Axial III APS or Axial SPS technologies, including:
- coatings developed for SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) applications
- coating for plasma etch chambers
Axial III developed functional coatings offer a low cost, high quality alternative to other methods of manufacture.
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