The selection of the optimium material is an important aspect in the design of machine components. The material has to fulfill several requirements:

• The material has to withstand the applied static and dynamic loading conditions.
• The material has to withstand the conditions in respect to: wear, corrosion, cavitation, erosion.
• The material must allow an easy and cost effective machining process.

A component that can fulfill all those requirements in respect to strength, toughness, wear resistance and machinability can often only be produced by a materials combination. In this respect, the various processes of surface treatments as well as surface coatings are becoming more and more important.

The various processes that can be used for the surface treatment of metallic materials can be divided into 3 groups:

1. Diffusion heat treatment processes
2. Mechanical surface treatment processes
3. Surface coating procosses

Consulting is offered for all of these 3 surface treatment processes. In the field of diffusion heat treatment the main focus is on hard-inchromizing, leading to 15µm thin chromium carbide coatings that are used as corrosion and wear resistant protection in the food industry. Mechanical surface treatment like shot peening are used to improve the fatigue strength of dynamically loaded components. The consulting in the field of surface preparation before thermal spraying is focussed on mechanical surface roughening as well as high-pressure water roughening of steel and grey cast iron materials. In the field of coating technologies the consulting is offered for the wide range of thermal spray processes as well as Laser-Cladding processes.

• What is the best suited surface treatment process that can fulfill all relvant requirements?
• What is the influence of the selected surface treatment process on the manufacturing and the function of the components?
• Which spray material should be applied by which thermal spray process?
• Is it possible to integrate the selected spray process into the own manfucturing line or is it more economical to use an external job shop?
• How can functional component tests help to optimize the thermal spray process?

I am offering my expertise for your support and consulting for such questions in the field of surface treament technology.