Coating Equipment

Carusel - Linear In-Line Systems

Systec SVS offers highly productive in-line vacuum coating systems. While these systems are primarily designed for medium- to high-volume coating operations, they also can be used to produce multilayer  films, where each separate layer has to be produced in a separate chamber. In-line coating machines are utimate in vacuum coating deposition technology, combining sophisticated mechanical design with latest advnaces in coating hardware.

We offer two different types of in-line coaters.

The traditional design implies linear movement of the load from one coating operation to another with processing occuring in series in separte chambers, which if necessary can be separated by gate valves:

This setup of the in-line machine is fairly simple is suitable for production of hard, decorative, optical and other coatings.

The Systec SVS linear ZVL/ZHL inline coaters are modular multichamber systems, which are used for functional and decorative coating. Depending on the productivity and substrate dimensions various chamber sizes are available. The different modules can be equipped for coating, etching, heating and other process steps.

The ZVL/ZHL coaters can be equipped with any combination of  magnetron sputtering sources, ion (PACVD) sources, arc cathodes or other deposition sources. Fully automatic production and integration in production lines is offered

The linear inline systems allow easy adaption to other related processes like electroplating or lacquering.

Below are typical technical data of the ZVL coating machine

An alternative approach to the in-line concept was realized in Systec SVS coaters DeQoTec and TriboTec. Instead of lateral moving of the load from one processing stage to another, a ‘carousel’ principle was applied for the transfer. In this concept, a special central transfer chamber, constantly maintained at vacuum, serves as a means for carrying the load over to another processing step like it is illustrated below.

The DeQoTec coating system is designed primarily for depositing decorative PVD coatings; however it can be easily adapted to producing high-volume of functional ceramic coatings, for example on cutting tools. Conversely, TriboTec coating system is designed for production of carbon-or metal-based low-friction coatings, obviously targeting automotive industry with high volume of similar parts.

One of the advantages of the carousel in-line coater is their capability for integration in fully automatic coating lines, where the parts are automatically transferred through various manufacturing stages, like cleaning, drying, coating, loading/unloading. We have fully automatic coating operation for production decorative parts at our satellite location at Systec SCI.:

The DeQoTec coating system features:

• Advanced Sputter Ion Plating deposition technology
• Cluster-Inline-Setup with 2 coating,  1 etching and  1 loading chmabers
• Typical cycle duration: 5 to 10 minutes for nitride or carbonitride coatings
• Loading/Unloading time  <  1 min
• Two HLK 1350 Sputter Cathodes per coating chamber
• Booster coils for plasma enhancement
• Fully automatic operation
• Ideal for high-volume production (decorative, automotive , cutting tools etc.)

Following below are some advantages of the
carousel/cluster coating systems:

• High productivity through short cycle times
• High throughput with limited risk due to small batch size
• High quality and reproducability
• 2 coating chambers with 2 sputtering cathodes each allow for great flexibility in coating composition and structure
• 2 coating chambers allow for fast deposition of single layered coatings by sharing the coating time between two chambers
• Virtually unlimited range of coatings (various  composition and colors)

Technical data of a typical DeQoTec coating system:

The coaters can be loaded either manually, or through robotic arms, which are integrated in the coater control system: