Technologies for development of coatings and thin films

The application of coatings and thin films requires an integrated design of the substrate and the surface in order to obtain a component with tailored functionality and performance improvement, maintaining low production cost:

• component lifetime increase;
• surface specific properties through functionalisation;
• functional device manufacturing.

Functional treatments are mainly devoted to improve corrosion/oxidation resistance, wear or fatigue resistance, or to give specific optical, electric, magnetic, adhesive or anti-adhesive functions, passivation, bio-compatibility, low friction coefficient, hydrophobic/hydrophilic, thermal/electrical insulation, etc. The used substrates are oxide and non-oxide ceramics, fibre-reinforced composites, glasses, tiles, light alloys and steels.

• Sol-gel processes (dip, spin, spray-coating);
• Spray pyrolysis;
• Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD);
• Slurry-coating;
• Pack-cementation.