Trends and Challenges in PVD Decorative coatings

IK4-TEKNIKER

From more than two decades PVD coatings have been widely employed for different decorative applications. Ceramic, metallic and plastics components have been coated in automotive, construction and many other industrial sectors.

In this paper we describe the state of the art and the main challenges in PVD coatings for some of the most typical applications: Ceramic tiles, Low melting point alloys (Zamak), and thermoplastics. We present the most important issues for each industrial application (specific substrate) and some of the most promised research lines to overcome these handicaps. This work also gather some aspects of the market trends as well as a general descriptions of the Spanish market for decorative PVD coatings.