CD Laboratory for Application Oriented Coating Development

The focus of the research is on the intelligent protection of machining tools and components through coatings composed of multiple constituents and features. These advanced coating materials enable better customization of coating properties to meet the ever-increasing demands.

Coatings do not only protect materials used for manufacturing of machining tools and components but also impart additional properties. While binary nitrides, carbides, and borides of certain metals have been well-studied and have long met industrial requirements, the modern coating industry demands more customized and diverse property combinations that binary compounds cannot fully provide. Materials with more than two components—such as ternary, quaternary, and multinary nitrides, carbides, and borides—offer greater possibilities. However, their complexity increases with the number of components. To effectively utilize these coatings, a knowledge-based design approach and a thorough understanding of coating process technology are essential. Research within this CD Lab focuses on these areas.

A significant aspect of this research involves the computer-aided design of layered materials, enabling precise predictions of material properties and behaviour. Modern methods like density functional theory and continuum mechanics are employed to address fundamental properties such as bond lengths and bond energy, as well as the deformation behaviour of the layers.

In addition to these design-activities through computational materials science, experimental development of coatings (with different chemistry, structure, and functionality) and coating processes is being conducted. This includes not only exploring various materials but also developing special layer architectures, such as combining different layers or phases and creating chemical or structural gradients.

Both areas—design and development—integrate data from studies on how coatings respond to thermal, chemical, or mechanical loading. These studies use advanced techniques such as high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, atom probe tomography, differential scanning calorimetry, in-situ micromechanics, and in-situ position-resolved synchrotron nano-beam X-ray diffraction during nano-indentation.

In the practical phase of the research, tools and components are coated with the most promising materials and tested under real-world conditions. These application-related test series are compared with those conducted under operational conditions.

Overall, this research is paving the way for a new era in the targeted design, needs-based development, and testing of innovative materials and coatings.