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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 tooling, cutting or forming CrN can be deposited at 205°C if necessary, but it can be used up to 600°C. Normal deposition temperature is 405°C. Coefficient of friction is not quite as good as TiN (0.4 versus 0.3 on steel)

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).