SULZER METAPLAS – Competence in Plasma Surface Technology

The original SULZER METAPLAS company was established in 1984 in the field of PVD coating technology. With the purchase of Klöckner IONON in 1993, SULZER METAPLAS expanded its activities to the field of plasma-based heat treatment. In 2001 the company was purchased by Sulzer Metco, a leading international supplier of surface technology. Sulzer Metco (surface technologies and service) is one of four core divisions of the Sulzer Group along with Sulzer Pumps (pumps and associated service), Sulzer Chemtech (components and service for separation columns and static mixing) and Sulzer Turbo Services (repairs and service for thermal turbo machinery).

SULZER METAPLAS is active in three areas of business on the market: its service centres for contract treatment offer state-of-the-art system technology and operate fully automatically with industrial robots in some areas. The experience gained in the service centres is applied to the ongoing efforts in system engineering: SULZER METAPLAS develops and builds complete turnkey systems covering the range from pre-treatment to coating and heat treatment systems, including post-treatment systems and the infrastructure equipment required for operation. This includes knowledge transfer in the form of licenses and patents. The highest standard of quality – certified according to ISO/TS 16949:2002 – is guaranteed. Furthermore, SULZER METAPLAS offers shop-in-shop solutions. We operate our own systems and make them available on-site to customers. The two basic technologies of SULZER METAPLAS are offered under different brands.

The MAXIT^® brand covers the field of PVD coating technology. MAXIT^® coatings are for a broad range of applications while maintaining the highest level of environmental compatibility. A wide range of materials may be refined with hard coatings of TiN, TiCN, AlTiN, ZrN, CrN or the low friction coating of W-C:H. Through special low temperature processes (from 180 °C in the case of tools) important properties of the components like strength and toughness are retained while at the same time ensuring a particularly good resistance against wear and ensuring low friction. In addition, the low adhesion and bonding tendency of materials treated with MAXIT^® opens up a broad range of different applications in the areas of metal cutting, forming and plastics technology.

The IONIT^® and IONIT OX^® brands cover plasma assisted heat treatment. The IONIT^® process is a plasma nitriding and plasma nitrocarburising process for all steel, cast iron, sintered and custom materials. With IONIT^® reproducible layers across a broad spectrum of temperatures are produced within a comparably short treatment time. Also partial nitriding at low distortion and high dimensional accuracy is attained without the need for costly mechanical reworking.

The IONIT OX^® process patented by SULZER METAPLAS is a combination process of gas nitriding, gas nitrocarburising, plasma activation and oxidation. Besides providing an excellent protection against corrosion and a significant improvement in wear protection, IONIT OX^® surfaces offer a clear improvement as to the mechanical properties of the components. Components treated with IONIT OX^® offer superior corrosion resistance in the salt spray test and e.g. under see or bio-diesel conditions.

The combined application of plasma nitriding and PVD hard coating represents a further tool for reducing abrasion, cold bonding, corrosion and unwanted coatings when processing plastic, elastomer materials and reforming metal. The technology allows for optimisation of the strength of components mostly independently of the surface hardness and chemistry of the surface in each case.

Sulzer Metco Surface Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
666 Min Bei Road, Minhang, Shanghai 201107, P.R.China

Tel: +86 (21) 5226 2000
Fax: +86 (21) 5226 4701
E-mail: smcn.shanghai@sulzer.com
Web: www.metaplas.com
Web: www.sulzermetco.com