What is PVD? Is there any difference between PVD and electroplating? What is the difference between water plating, vacuum plating, sputtering and coating?
PVD technology is a process that uses physical processes to transfer materials, transferring atoms or molecules from the source to the surface of the substrate. Through this technology, certain particles with special properties (such as high strength, wear resistance, heat dissipation, corrosion resistance, etc.) can be sprayed on a matrix with lower performance, so that the matrix has better performance. Basic PVD methods include vacuum evaporation, sputtering and ion plating.
PVD technology has the characteristics of dense and uniform coating layer, strong adhesion, good plating properties, fast deposition speed, low processing temperature, and a wide range of plating materials. Therefore, PVD technology is widely used in the field of surface treatment engineering and is one of the best choices. In addition, the coating process of PVD itself is also a glow reaction under a high temperature state and a plasma field, which has a high purification process. In addition, the main raw material of PVD products is titanium metal. Titanium is the metal with the highest affinity for human skin among metals, making PVD products pure and environmentally friendly.
PVD technology can produce thousands of colors and can even imitate colors found in nature. For example, the gold series includes European gold (2N18 and 1N14), Japanese gold (GY01), Chinese gold (GY2N), etc.; the coffee series includes dark coffee, light coffee, medium coffee, etc.; the black series includes gun color, gray, super black, etc. ;Fashion series include space color, champagne color, khaki color, etc. Therefore, PVD technology has great flexibility and diversity in color selection.
Different from PVD technology, water plating technology is a traditional electroplating method and a way to realize the electrochemical process. It uses positive and negative electrodes in a plating tank under the action of current to achieve the deposition of metal or non-metal films. Water plating can usually achieve surface coatings such as gold plating, silver plating, nickel plating, chromium plating, and cadmium plating, but its electroplating solution has major pollution problems. Water plating also includes two types: electroplating and chemical plating. Electroplating is suitable for surface decoration because it provides a high-brightness surface, while chemical plating has a darker surface and is suitable for anti-corrosion coatings.
Vacuum evaporation, sputtering and ion plating are the main methods of PVD technology. Among them, the vacuum evaporation method heats and melts metal under high vacuum conditions, causing it to evaporate and deposit on the surface of the sample to form a metal film. Sputtering usually refers to magnetron sputtering, which requires a vacuum degree of about 1×10-3Torr. High-voltage direct current is added between the plastic substrate and the metal target, and glow discharge is used to blast out the atoms of the metal target. , and deposited on a plastic substrate. Ion plating is a method that uses gas discharge to partially ionize gas or evaporated substances, and deposits evaporated substances or their reaction products on the substrate under the bombardment of gas ions or evaporated substance ions.
Coating is a technology that uses rapid electrochemical methods to locally deposit metal on the surface of metal workpieces. It is a technology of electrochemical processing in principle and essence. During the coating process, metal ions are deposited on the cathode through the plating solution under the action of the electric field, forming a thin film. Coating is commonly used in chromium plating, nickel plating and other applications.
To sum up, PVD technology provides a high-tech, widely used ion plating technology with many advantages, including variable color, dense and uniform coating, strong adhesion, and low processing temperature. Compared with traditional technologies such as water plating and coating, PVD technology is widely used in high-quality and high-demand products and fields.
