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Chromium Nitride (CrN)

Chromium Nitride is a bright silver/grey coloured ceramic coating applied to metallic surfaces by the physical vapour deposition (PVD) process. The coating has high hardness and excellent toughness combined with good resistance to oxidation.

Tecvac produce CrN coatings Using a process of electron beam evaporation under vacuum at a work piece temperature of about 480°C. This method of manufacture results in coatings which are very smooth and require no post coating processing.

CrN out-performs titanium-based coatings for certain applications. It is resistant to corrosion and adhesive wear, particularly related to working non-ferrous metals. Copper, aluminium or titanium can be increased by 50-100% over the TiN performance.

The lifetime of cutting and forming tools operating at temperatures up to 600°C can be significantly increased using CrN coating. CrN is also an excellent erosion resistant coating and effective in reducing heat checking in die casting tooling. Coefficient of friction against steel is slightly less than TiN (0.4 verses 0.3 )

Hardness is approximately 2000 HVN, Which compares with hard chrome plate at 1000 HVN and high speed steel in a hardened condition of typically 950 HVN. (TiN is around 25000 HVN).