Our technical team has the skills to transform your development project, gained from working in both EPC and the wider thermal spray industry. We know whether something is scientifically possible or technically feasible, and how to achieve it in best practice.
As thermal spray coating specialists, we’ll work with you to give the best possible service at every level. This includes bespoke coating specification, development of robust and efficient production techniques, implementation of quality control processes, and work instruction packages. With close relationships with equipment suppliers, we also supply full technology transfer, including all required equipment, materials and ongoing support.
What projects and technical difficulties can our thermal spray coating technology help you to overcome?
From our years of experience in application development, we have developed many thermal coating solutions that have helped businesses to overcome technological and scientific barriers they have faced during their projects.
Our experience in engineered coatings developments have helped manufacturers in situations where:
- Pre-existing coating materials fail to achieve the necessary function;
- the component’s base material is particularly challenging for the desired coating due to bonding or differences in thermal expansion coefficients;
- existing component design is suited to alternative coating/plating systems
- or the component needs to be compliant with a change in industry regulations.
The process of engineered coating development
We carry out extensive research and development to support your project and help you to overcome obstacles that are getting in the way.
As part of our research and development, we utilise the knowledge of our technical staff who have extensive experience in the field. If appropriate, we work collaboratively with your technical staff to ensure synergy between your product and the coating system.
Here is the process of how we go about an engineered coatings development project and the steps we take to help make your project a success, ensuring that it meets the relevant industrial specifications.
We investigate and plan
The first step in the process is to investigate your project. We’ll work with you to establish your needs and challenges to develop a proposal of an engineered coating system that’s suitable for your project. Once we have identified your requirements, we will compile a full development plan which, depending on your desired outcome, can include various suitable coating materials, application methods and surface preparation techniques. We will make sure that you are included at every step of the way, keeping you in full control.
We carry out coating trials
We carry out coating trials of the selected coating materials and thermal spray technologies we have suggested in the development plan. Where appropriate, we use bespoke manufacturing tools and representative test pieces to put our plan to the test. The trialling can be a lengthy process as we don’t stop until we are satisfied that we have met every goal of the agreed trial plan.
We test the coating
Once we are satisfied and confident with the outcomes from the trial phase, we then test all of the produced coatings using our on-site laboratory. This is to ensure that it meets or exceeds your requirements and overcomes your challenges that were identified in the first stages of the project. All of the results are then presented in a full report for your review in the next step of the engineered coating development process.
We analyse the results
We will guide you through the results presented in the report and help you come to a decision on the most practical solution for production.
We put the development into production
Once we are confident that we have found a coating solution, our team gets to work on putting it into production. This is done through our Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) process which, through extensive preparation, allows a seamless transition to full scale, high yield production.
How we can support your engineered coating development project
If you have a project that could benefit from the support of our technical team, get in touch. We’d be happy to discuss the ins and outs of your project and help you to develop an engineered coating as a solution.