Chapter 8:

Surface Treatments & Coatings

Ref: S. Kalpakjian

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education South Asia Pte Ltd

Chapter Outline
1. Introduction
2. Mechanical Surface Treatments
3. Mechanical Plating and Cladding
4. Case Hardening and Hard Facing
5. Vapor Deposition
6. Electroplating
7. Painting
Introduction
 Importance of surface treatments:
1. Improve resistance to wear, erosion, and indentation
2. Control friction
3. Reduce adhesion
4. Improve lubrication
5. Improve resistance to corrosion and oxidation
6. Improve fatigue resistance
7. Rebuild surfaces (on worn tools, dies, molds)
8. Modify surface texture (appearance, dimensional accuracy)
9. Impart decorative features (color & texture)
Mechanical Surface Treatments

Shot Peening
 Workpiece surface is impacted repeatedly with a
cast steel, glass or ceramic shot
 Process would causes compressive residual
stresses on the surface
 It improve the fatigue life of the component by
delaying the initiation of fatigue cracks
 Extent of deformation can be reduced by gravity
peening which involves larger shot sizes
 Used on shafts, gears and springs
 Shot Peening

Shot peening of an aircraft engine component.

Mechanical Surface Treatments
Laser Shot Peening
 Workpiece surface is subjected to planar laser
shocks (pulses) from high-power lasers
 Surface-treatment process produces compressive
residual-stress layers
Water-jet Peening
 A water jet at high pressure impinges on the
surface of the workpiece
 Induce compressive residual stresses on the
surface and subsurface
Case Hardening

Case Hardening (i.e., carburizing, boronizing)

 To provide hard surface on the surface of steels.
 Component is heated in an atmosphere containing element
such as carbon or boron gases.
 Alter the composition, microstructure and mechanical
properties of surface (i.e., higher hardness at surface)
 Formation of martensite during case hardening causes
compressive residual stresses on surface
 Advantage; ability to reach areas that inaccessible by other
process.
Case Hardening

Carburizing process
Hard Facing

 Wear resistant hard metal is deposited on the

surface by the fusion-welding (i.e., shield metal
arc welding, gas metal arc welding, oxyfuel gas
welding etc.
 Enhances wear resistance of the materials
Vapor Deposition
 Vapor deposition is where substrate is subjected
to chemical reactions by gases
 Deposited materials can consist of metals, alloys,
carbides, nitrides, borides, ceramics, or oxides
 Substrate may be metal, plastic, glass, or paper
 2 major vapor-deposition processes: physical
vapor deposition and chemical vapor
deposition
Vapor Deposition:
Physical Vapor Deposition
 3 basic types of physical vapor deposition (PVD)
processes:
1. Vacuum deposition or arc evaporation
2. Sputtering
Vapor Deposition:
Physical Vapor Deposition
Vacuum Deposition
 Metal is gasified via evaporation and condensed on the
substrate material
 Required high power electricity
 In arc deposition, the coating material is evaporated by arc
evaporators using highly localized electric arcs
 No chemical reaction
take place
Vapor Deposition:
Physical Vapor Deposition
Sputtering
 An electric field ionizes an inert gas (argon) in the
process
 Positive ions bombard the coating material
(cathode) and cause sputtering (ejection) of its
atoms
Vapor Deposition:
Chemical Vapor Deposition
 Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a
thermochemical process
 Titanium tetrachloride (a vapor), hydrogen, and
nitrogen are introduced into the chamber
 Chemical reactions will form titanium nitride on
the tool surfaces
Electroplating

 Plating imparts the properties of:

1. Resistance to wear
2. Resistance to corrosion
3. High electrical conductivity
4. Better appearance
5. Reflectivity
Electroplating
 The workpiece is plated with a different metal
which is transferred through a water-based
electrolytic solution
Electroplating

 The volume of the plated metal can be calculated

from I = current in amperes
Volume  clt t = time
c = constant
Electroplating
 The rate of film deposition depends on the local
current density
 Chromium plating is done by plating the metal
with copper, nickel and chromium
 Hard chromium plating is done on the base
metal and results in a surface hardness
Electroless-Coating for Plastic
 Part is submerged into an aqueous bath filled with
metal salts (ie Nickel), reducing agents and
catalysts
 Excellent for complex geometries as deposition is
uniform across surface regardless of geometry
Electroless Plating

 Carried out by a chemical reaction and without

the use of an external source of electricity
 Cavities, recesses, and the inner surfaces of tubes
can be plated
 Also can be used with nonconductive materials
Painting

 Paints are classified as:

1. Enamels
2. Lacquers
3. Water-based paints
 Paints are available with good resistance to
abrasion, temperature extremes, fading, easy to
apply and dry quickly
Painting

 Common methods of applying paint are dipping,

brushing, rolling and spraying