// Case study // IHI Hauzer Techno Coating B.V
Enhanced coatings
With competence centers in China and Japan, a leading Dutch supplier is broadening
its scope with regard to coating developments for the automotive industry
The automotive market is an important
business arena for IHI Hauzer Techno Coating,
a leading name in equipment building and in
the development of plasma coating technology.
And according to Hauzer’s product manager
for tribological coatings, Dave Doerwald,
the company is well positioned to realize
further growth: “Many components, such as
turbodiesel injection systems, piston rings,
valvetrain components, piston pins, bearings
and gears, are coated to reduce wear and
friction and thus save fuel and reduce CO 2
emissions. With the Euro norms growing
ever-stricter on all continents, automotive
OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers are always looking
for ways to improve their fuel economy and one
way to accomplish that is by reducing friction
with tribological coatings.”
As such, the world of coatings never stands
still, with new designs pushing the innovation
bar all the time. In this respect, Hauzer’s
competence centers in the Netherlands, Japan,
and – opened in the second quarter of 2013 –
China, play an active R&D role. Collaboration
between international universities, automotive
OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers ensures that all
expertise is combined to achieve optimum
results. The new competence center in
China has been further enhanced with a
Hauzer Flexicoat 1200 machine equipped
with several technologies, including plasma
enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)
to produce DLC. The expansion of the China
competence center did not pass unannounced
in the automotive world, with the ‘Trends
in Tribological Coatings for the Automotive
Industry in China’ conference, held in Shanghai,
Metalliner has been
designed to offer a flexible
in-line production platform
welcoming more than 100 visitors, keen to
experience presentations from senior engineers
from Schaeffler Technologies, Lanzhou
Institute of Physics, CSM Instruments, Mahle
Technologies and Hauzer, with the latter having
used the conference as a platform to disclose
details about the new center and the Hauzer
Flexicoat 1200.
Its name notwithstanding, there’s more to
Hauzer than advanced coatings, as Doerwald
explains: “Our expertise in the automotive
industry is not limited to tribology and engine
components. An ever-greater need for weight
reduction in cars leads to an increasing use of
coated plastics for interior and exterior parts.
Plating on plastics is the current technology
standard, which gives these parts a metallic
appearance, but more and more countries are
increasingly banning this technology, so the industry
is on the lookout for alternative technologies.
The ‘Trends in Tribological
Coatings for the Automotive
Industry in China’ conference
took place in Shanghai
84 // January 2014 // Engine Technology International.com
“For this specific segment Hauzer has
developed a flexible inline production platform,
called Metalliner, which can be integrated into
an automated production line. The machine
is flexible in its choice of technologies and
includes a two-layer coating consisting of
UV-cured lacquer with a thin layer of physical
vapor deposition (PVD) on top. This is a dry
production process executed in vacuum
chambers, which makes it environmentally
friendly. The resulting chrome layer, which is
cool to the touch, has been approved for many
automotive applications. The Metalliner can
grow with the capacity needs of customers, so
they can start with a five-chamber machine and
add extra vacuum chambers when the need for
higher productivity arises.”
According to Doerwald, Hauzer’s success
is mainly due to the close relationship that
the company enjoys with its customers and
research institutes. “The automotive field is full
of specialist organizations and only by bringing
all this expertise together can we succeed as an
industry. The challenges are big and the norms
get stricter and stricter. As a company, we are
glad to be able to contribute with innovative
solutions for the future.”