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One of the most useful applications of the E-Beam treatment coupled with magnetron sputtering is the creation of surface alloyes. Rather than having a thin film deposited on a surface, the machine can fuse together the substrate and the covering, creating endless possibilities.

 

A surface alloy is formed by alternate deposition of nanofilms onto an article under treatment and by subsequent liquid-phase mixing of the deposited nanofilm and substrate with an intense pulsed electron beam. Both deposition and mixing take place within a single vacuum cycle. As concerns its functional characteristics, the surface alloy is a coating having the required properties that essentially improve the service performance of the articles and tools. There is, nevertheless, a critical difference between a coating and surface alloy, namely, the latter has no interface with the substrate. The surface layer of a predetermined chemical composition is found to be fused into the substrate. Thus in this case, there is no distinct coating or substrate but rather a single conglomeration composed of the substrate material gradually "transforming" into the surface.

 

Surface alloy1

In a conventional coating there is a clear interface between the coating itself and the substrate. Using the E-Beam treatment this interface disappears. This means that it is possible to modify several properties of a surface, but also that the adhesion of the "coating" is much stronger and there is no danger of it peeling off.

 

Surface alloy2 Surface alloy3

In this examples, several alternating layers of Titanium and Zirconium were deposited onto a substrate and then fused together using the E-Beam treatment.

Steel treatment

SS carbon alloy2

In this example, a thin layer of stainless steel was deposited onto a substrate of carbon steel and subsequentely treated with the E-Beam to create a surface alloy, thus creating a surface with better mechanical properties and much more corrosion resistant.