Classifications

• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C23—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION IN GENERAL
  • C23C—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THE SURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL
  • C23C14/00—Coating by vacuum evaporation, by sputtering or by ion implantation of the coating forming material
  • C23C14/22—Coating by vacuum evaporation, by sputtering or by ion implantation of the coating forming material characterised by the process of coating
  • C23C14/24—Vacuum evaporation
  • C23C14/32—Vacuum evaporation by explosion; by evaporation and subsequent ionisation of the vapours, e.g. ion-plating
  • C23C14/325—Electric arc evaporation
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C23—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION IN GENERAL
  • C23C—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THE SURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL
  • C23C14/00—Coating by vacuum evaporation, by sputtering or by ion implantation of the coating forming material
  • C23C14/22—Coating by vacuum evaporation, by sputtering or by ion implantation of the coating forming material characterised by the process of coating
  • C23C14/50—Substrate holders
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C23—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION IN GENERAL
  • C23C—COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THE SURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL
  • C23C14/00—Coating by vacuum evaporation, by sputtering or by ion implantation of the coating forming material
  • C23C14/22—Coating by vacuum evaporation, by sputtering or by ion implantation of the coating forming material characterised by the process of coating
  • C23C14/50—Substrate holders
  • C23C14/505—Substrate holders for rotation of the substrates

Definitions

• the invention relates to a vacuum coating system according to the preamble of claim 1. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for the simultaneous coating of several sheet-like substrates with a hard material layer, according to the preamble of claim 23.
• PVD vacuum coating systems with substrate holders for tools which are especially optimized for rotationally symmetrical workpiece geometries, such as, for example, shank tools with different dimensions.
• Examples of this are described production systems of the company OC Oerlikon Balzers AG Liechtenstein, such as the system of the type RCS described in EP 186 681 A1 and in the EP 0 886 880 B1 detail running system type BAI 1200.
• Typical rotating holders for indexable inserts, the used in these production systems are shown in Figures 1a and 1b.
• the indexable inserts 7 can be fastened, for example, on drum-like magnetic workpiece carriers 40 or arranged on rods for the tool holder 27 and in alternation with spacers 39.
• PVD systems are known in which small parts are rotated as bulk material in lattice drums and thereby moved, while they are simultaneously exposed to the coating of outside or inside the drum mounted cathodes as coating sources.
• Such methods as mentioned for example in EP 0 632 846, have the disadvantage that the small parts strike against one another or against the drum as a result of the drum movement and thus, especially with hard metal parts, scratch surfaces and damage sharp edges such as cutting edges.
• CVD coating machines for cutting tools such as indexable inserts have been known for a long time.
• the chemical process for separating the desired material from the gas phase either purely thermally or, as in the present specification, additionally excited by a plasma applied between substrates and electrodes, such as a pulse plasma.
• a disadvantage of such with respect to the substrate size and shape universal equipment is the loading and unloading of the substrates in the brackets and in the system.
• the universality requirement with regard to the substrates rather requires an adaptation of the substrate holders to the system than to the substrates, thereby making it more difficult to automate the loading and unloading of the substrates.
• CVD coatings with layers thicker than about 6 ⁇ m CVD processes have been established so far for economic reasons, which are capable of producing large batches in large-volume CVD coating systems (US Pat. Batches) with indexable inserts despite moderate CVD coating rate cost-effective coating.
• the CVD approach was also supported until recently by the fact that there was no PVD production technology for indexable oxide production and CVD alone seemed possible.
• An important feature of the CVD coating is a largely uniform distribution of the layers over the indexable insert or the region of the cutting edge, which is advantageous in many cases.
• this advantage is disadvantageous if a predetermined layer thickness ratio of free and rake face is to be realized on an indexable insert.
• the high process temperatures in the CVD approach are not suitable for all tools and therefore undesirable.
• a disadvantage of the CVD technology is, in addition to the low coating rates, the low flexibility in the choice of materials for the coating materials, which are supplied via gaseous precursors.
• the availability of the corresponding precursor is limited; on the other hand, rare precursors are associated with high production costs.
• the gaseous precursors are difficult to handle for certain materials, the chemical reactions can not be controlled as freely and independently as is the case with PVD sources, and the CVD reactions are temperature-controlled and a greater variety of precursors in the process chamber makes it difficult to control the desired reaction.
• the CVD coating rates are small and the heating and cooling cycles are long, so there is a compulsion to large batch plants.
• the high temperatures and the inflexibility of the materials are disadvantageous. Pooling lots of lots in one batch increases process risk, interrupts substrate manufacturing flow, and reduces process control.
• the CVD technology is limited and at least associated with high costs for the development of new materials, if at all possible.
• the object of the present invention is to eliminate or reduce the disadvantages of the prior art.
• a PVD vacuum coating system for the hard material coating of cutting tools, which are designed in particular as almost two-dimensional flat substrates, such as preferably indexable inserts (also called inserts) and the like Enables productivity or a very rapid layer growth and is preferably suitable for use in indexable insert production, ie Allows for easy, automated assembly and fits into the machine infrastructure of a CVD production line for indexable inserts.
• the coating system is intended to enable high throughput even in the deposition of thick layers, in particular with poorly conductive, insulating such as oxide-containing layers, in which the substrate holders may have a substantially two-dimensional geometry and which equipped with a variety of substrates and coated at the same time with high efficiency can be.
• Another object is to provide a new arrangement which PVD
• Coating sources with substrate holders are combined in such a way that similar areal shaped substrate holders can be used, which can also meet handling requirements in the CVD coating technology already in use and preferably no longer make it absolutely necessary to rotate the substrates. Furthermore, a high flexibility is to be made possible both in the batch size as well as in the layer design with this approach.
• Another object is the possibility of coating Schneidwerkzeu- gene, in particular indexable inserts, in which the layer thickness ratio of free surface to rake surface varies and can be selectively adjusted.
• a further task is the simultaneous, as far as possible, simultaneous application of material from the PVD solid sources over the entire substrate surface during the coating, without any possible substrate rotation interrupting the material flow of the solid material sources.
• Another mission is to develop the typical elements of training from the existing, previously used, CVD substrate mount, and which previously only fit into this technology and was previously only suitable for coating in batch systems, for a new PVD technology that offers higher coating rates makes it possible to take on important aspects and thereby preserve the remaining technical infrastructure of indexable insert production.
• a further object is to provide a PVD technology by combining CVD substrate support and PVD source arrangement, for which preferably no substrate movement, such as in particular substrate rotation, is necessary, and nevertheless both a substantially uniform layer distribution over the cutting surfaces of the Indexable insert as well as a certain layer thickness ratio for the different cutting surfaces of the insert can be achieved.
• a vacuum coating system comprises the following elements: a vacuum process chamber connected to a pumping system, at least one reactive gas inlet connected to at least one reactive gas container, at least one PVD coating source having an anode and a planar cathode a substrate carrier with a plurality of substrates, at least one door, which is arranged on the vacuum process chamber for loading or unloading the chamber with the substrate carrier or for passing in another chamber, a transport device for passing the substrate carrier through the door and positioning in the Vacuum process chamber spaced in the region of the flat cathode, at least one power supply, which is connected to the at least one PVD - Be Schweizerungsario.
• the substrate carrier in which a plurality of substrates are deposited is in this case formed two-dimensionally, horizontally expanded, whereby it is positioned between at least two PVD coating sources.
• the plurality of substrates are cutting tools with at least one cutting edge formed thereon, which is arranged in the peripheral edge region of the planar substrate. These substrates are deposited distributed in a plane of the two-dimensional extent of the substrate carrier, wherein the substrate carrier is positioned in a horizontal plane in the vacuum process chamber spaced between the planar cathodes of the at least two PVD coating sources such that at least a part of each of the at least one cutting edge Contains active cutting edge and this is at least one of the cathodes of the PVD coating sources aligned at all times in visual communication exposed.
• the active cutting edge is that part of the edge which is used on the cutting tool in the cutting insert for cutting.
• the cutting edge includes at least a respective part of the lateral surfaces along the edge which are referred to as chip and open spaces.
• these cutting edges with the lateral cutting areas are therefore always exposed to at least one of the cathodes of a PVD coating source in direct line of sight.
• the material flow which is deposited on the cutting edges is never interrupted, at least in the part of the edge which is the active cutting edge.
• the material flow can vary at most in the deposition rate.
• layers are deposited at high speed with high quality.
• the substrate carrier or even the substrates can be moved on the substrate carriers in order to achieve additional homogenization of the layer thickness distribution.
• substrates can also be rotated relative to the substrate carrier by means of a drive. In such a case, the cutting edges are alternately coated exposed from opposite sources, but always such that there is always a flow of material from at least one source on the at least one cutting edge or the at least two cutting edges of each substrate.
• an arrangement in which the substrates are deposited fixedly on or within the substrate carrier is substantially preferred.
• the cutting edges, in particular if several per substrate are present on its circumference, are thereby preferably assigned to the corresponding material flow with respect to one or the other opposite source, depending on which edge or which edge part in direct line of sight with respect to the relevant cathode Source is exposed.
• edge parts can also be acted on from both sides, depending on the position of the substrates in the substrate carrier arrangement. It is advantageous if the two-dimensional substrates are deposited at right angles to one another in relation to the flat substrate carrier, advantageously slightly spaced apart from one another.
• the substrates can be deposited slightly inclined relative to the plane of the substrate support, in order to additionally expose certain areas to the sources in an additional preferred manner. It is advantageous if the at least one cutting edge of each substrate on the substrate carrier, on the correspondingly assigned side of the at least one cathode at any time at least 50%, preferably 70% of its length is exposed in visual connection to this aligned and coated there and not there the support in the holder or in the substrate carrier is shaded. Within this area is then the coated active cutting edge, as used in the cutting process with the cutting tool. It can thereby be achieved that the cutting edge of the cutting tool to be used is completely desirably coated and is not disturbed by shading effects.
• the efficiency (EFZ) of the PVD material flow can be defined as follows:
• EFZ is the incorporation of target material amount into the layer per time / mass loss of target material per time. This is to some extent a transmission factor which states how much target material of the cathode arrives at the usable surfaces to be coated.
• the variation of the deposition rate at the substrate surface to be coated (active cutting edge) is denoted by delta (EFZ). This is the temporal variation of this value with the goal of achieving a uniform coating, with or preferably without substrate movement or substrate rotation, based on the time average of EFZ.
• the delta (EFZ) should be maximum ⁇ 30%, preferably ⁇ 20%, preferably ⁇ 10%.
• the substrate carrier with the areal extent can, for example, have a lattice-shaped structure, in the spaces of which a plurality of substrates can be easily inserted during charging. Then, in the PVD vacuum process plant, the desired areas of the cutting edges can be coated simultaneously with the associated two-sided cutting surfaces in one process, very economically.
• the coating of the lateral surfaces, the rake surfaces and the free surfaces according to specification targeted to each other, for example, different layer thicknesses and / or material composition and / or layer Eigen shadow.
• FIG. 2 Schematic representation of an indexable insert with free surface
• FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a single-chamber system as an example with a PVD evaporator source
• FIG. 4 shows a schematic representation of a single-chamber system with two opposing sources and a horizontally arranged, flat substrate carrier
• Fig. 5a, b, c a Spiesshalterung for indexable inserts with hole
• b Spiesshalte- tion for indexable inserts without hole
• c workpiece holder with rotating skewers
• FIG. 7 a, b a substrate carrier with indexable inserts simply inserted into a rectangular grid
• b inserted into a circular grid
• FIG. 7 a, b a substrate carrier with indexable inserts simply inserted into a rectangular grid
• b inserted into a circular grid
• FIG. 10 a, b Schematic representation of a preferred PVD coating system with opposing arc source pairs (a) and two-dimensionally extended substrate carrier arranged therebetween and, for illustration, a sectional view of the same (b).
• the substrates to be coated essentially have a two-dimensional shape or a planar expanded form. This means that the side lengths a and b are substantially greater than the third side length c of the body, as is the case with the preferred cutting tools 7 to be coated, the indexable inserts and as shown schematically and by way of example in FIG.
• the aim of the coating is to coat the cutting edges E with the associated flank face B and the rake surface A. In such a cutting tool usually only a part of all formed on the tool edge lengths is used with the associated side surfaces during the cutting process. This part is referred to as the active cutting edge E 'and is within 50% or even only 30% of the total length of a cutting edge available on the workpiece.
• the expansions E "away from the edge E in the flank B where the flank wear D occurs and away from the edge E into the rake face A where the scoring occurs are in the range of 50 ⁇ m to 5.0 mm and must also be coated It may be advantageous to provide the coating in these regions of the rake face and the flank face selectively with different layer thickness, which additionally makes the present invention possible.
• the cutting tool has to be coated with the necessary high quality only in these specified areas, the others can Unused areas on the tool are used for the support, for example, by placing in a grid 25 'with openings 25 on the substrate carrier or by using a hole 28 in the central region of the substrate 7, which also lies in the unused area of the tool do not have to have planar surfaces and may also be curved on individual sides or on all sides or may also have other flat contours or contain depressions or elevations for example mounting arrangements in a tool holder or a better chip removal in the cutting process.
• Cutting tools are preferably polygonal, flat bodies. Triangular and quadrangular bodies are preferably used, with the active cutting edges each starting from the corners, as shown in FIG.
• the active cutting edges E 'to be coated with the associated lateral parts of the free surface B and the rake surface A to be coated are in the vicinity of the 4 cutting corners. In this case, these surfaces should be largely uniformly coated from the corner of the indexable insert about 2 to 5 mm, without the substrate carrier 6 leading to shadowing during the coating.
• the indexable inserts 7 are used in the corners and a few hundred microns along the edges for the cutting process. This is the areas of crater wear C and flank wear D.
• FIG. 3 greatly simplifies the basic arrangement of a vacuum coating system with which substrates 7 such as indexable inserts can be coated on a quasi-planar substrate carrier 6, preferably a grid.
• the system consists of a vacuum chamber 1, which can be evacuated via a pumping system 2.
• the workpiece carrier 6 with the several workpieces 7 are brought via a door or lock 4 in the transport direction 5 on the horizontal transport plane 3 in the coating position in front of the source 8.
• the coating takes place with a PVD coating source 8, which is preferably an arc evaporation source, which is equipped with an ignition device 9, an anode 10 and a cathode or target 11.
• the necessary reactive gases are introduced via at least one reactive gas inlet 12 from at least one reactive gas container 13.
• an inert gas inlet 14 is provided for noble gases such as argon, which is connected to the inert gas container 15.
• the reactive gas container 13 preferably contains one of the gases nitrogen, oxygen, hydrocarbon, silane, hydrogen boride, hydrogen, combinations of these gases and preferably oxygen for the reactive deposition of the desired layer compounds.
• a plurality of reactive gas containers 13 may be connected to the plant containing various of these gases in order to produce multi-layer multilayer coating systems of various materials and / or to change the types of layers as needed.
• the Arcverdampferetti is fed with a DC power supply 16 and / or advantageously with a pulse high current supply 17.
• a further DC power supply 18 is used for a second source 21 on the opposite side of the plant, as shown in FIG.
• the substrate carrier then lies in a plane 3 between the two sources 8 and 21, preferably parallel to the flat cathodes 11. It is also possible to arrange a plurality of planar substrate carriers 6, although a single large-area one is preferably used.
• the substrates 7 are preferably acted upon via the substrate carrier 6 with an electrical bias by means of a bias current supply 19, which can be carried out both DC, AC, MF, RF, DC and / or preferably pulsed unipolar and bipolar. Normally, all power supplies are operated against ground 20.
• the anode 10 in the case of the arc evaporator source it is also possible to keep the anode 10 separate from ground and to operate the source power supplies 16, 17, 18 therewith in a groundless manner between the anode 10 and the cathode 11.
• the coating preferably takes place without substrate movement, it is possible to place the substrate carrier before, after or during the coating in the horizontal direction or towards the one or the other cathode while maintaining the parallel orientation to the horizontal plane.
• the cathodes 11 can in this case also be tilted relative to this horizontal plane in order to favor the material flow preferably in a certain direction. It is also possible to rotate the entire substrate carrier 6 about its vertical axis in the horizontal coating plane. Such a rotation is particularly preferred when layer thickness ratios of free and rake surface must be set specifically or different materials are to be deposited on these surfaces.
• the PVD coating sources proposed here may be sources of sputtering, such as magnetron sources and / or preferably arc-evaporation sources.
• at least two opposing coating sources 8, 21, which form at least one PVD source pair and are substantially opposite, are provided with substrate carrier 6 therebetween, with each of the two sources being operated with a DC power supply 16, 18, and preferably both Cathodes 11 of the two sources 8, 21 are operated with a single pulse high current supply, as shown in the figures 4 and 6.
• the one source of the source pair is thus positioned at a distance above the substrate carrier 6 and the other source is spaced below the substrate carrier. It is advantageous if at least one PVD source pair consists of arc evaporation sources.
• FIG. 3 An arrangement with only one source 8 on one side of the substrate carrier 6, as shown in FIG. 3, alone does not yet permit all-round coating of the substrates 7, in particular if they are deposited in a substrate carrier which is extended in a planar manner. For this purpose, a rotation of the held indexable inserts 7 would have to be realized.
• workpiece receivers 27, a kind of rods or skewers, which are inserted in a frame 23 and on which the indexable inserts 7 are held, are schematically illustrated in FIGS. 5a to 5c for indexable inserts. In the figure 5a this is shown for indexable inserts with hole 28 and without hole in Figure 5b with the fastener 29.
• the rotation is via a rotary drive 30 with the direction of rotation 31.
• the rotary drive is coupled to a gear 33 and the motor drive 32.
• the coating can be deposited better and individually controlled at the desired areas on the substrate 7 and the arrangement is easier and more economical to handle.
• the edge parts to be coated always see at least one of the at least two sources and are exposed to them.
• On the correspondingly assigned side of the one cathode 11, at least 50%, preferably 70%, of the length of the cutting edge (E) of its length are thus exposed in visual contact to the corresponding cathode.
• movements 22 of the entire substrate carrier 6 in the horizontal plane and / or in the direction of the cathodes 11 between the at least one source pair are possible.
• the stationary arrangement of the Sustratizis 6 with the fixed therein substrates 7 is preferred.
• Arc current, the set gas pressure and the resulting coating characteristics and can with the help of the known in the art simulation method be optimized so that a largely uniform coating thickness distribution on the areas to be coated of the substrates 7, in particular in the coated cutting edge areas of indexable inserts can be achieved.
• the source evaporation characteristic can be further influenced and optimized by variable magnetic fields, the pulsing of the arc current and the gas pressure, which in addition allows a source arrangements with still greater degree of freedom than shown for example in Figures 3 and 4.
• FIG. 6 shows how an in-line system is constructed based on this concept.
• a plurality of indexable inserts (workpieces) 7 are again laid out on at least one workpiece carrier or substrate carrier 6. As a simple form, these are formed like a lattice, as shown in FIGS. 7a and 7b.
• the workpiece carrier 7 consists of a frame 23 which surrounds the lattice-like workpiece support 24 with the corresponding plurality of openings 25 for insertion. supply of the substrates 7 in these openings.
• the workpiece support may preferably be formed as a grid 25 'and is preferably made of conductive material, for example as a wire grid 25', so that a bias voltage can be applied to the substrates 7 in a simple manner.
• This at least one workpiece carrier 6 is brought either by differential pumping or in corresponding pre-chambers in the process pressure environment. A pretreatment such as heating and etching can be done, for example, in antechambers. The coating then takes place in the system, as shown in FIG.
• FIG. 34 A preferred version of a multi-chamber system 34 as regards flexibility in designing the process flow is shown in FIG.
• the individual chambers 1a, 1b, 1c communicating with each other via a transport chamber 36 with central handling system connected to each other and the substrate carrier 6 with the several inserted indexable inserts 7 are according to predetermined process flow of a single chamber 1a - 1c to the other transported.
• the advantage of such a system is that process steps of different lengths with a high duty cycle can also be inserted into the process flow.
• Another advantage is, for example, that the coating with oxidic and nitridic materials can take place in different process chambers and that these chambers then have to be equipped only with the necessary components especially for these coatings.
• the arc sources preferably have a magnet system with which it is possible to generate at the target surface a very small perpendicular magnetic field, for example between 3 and 50 Gauss, but preferably in a range between 5 and 25 Gauss.
• the arc sources are completely without magnetic operated and it can be achieved with Arcverdampfer provoken nevertheless very high evaporation rates.
• the pulsed operation of the sources which is also preferred, can influence the directionality of the vaporized source material.
• the evaporation rates of arc sources can easily be adjusted to achieve coating rates of up to 20 ⁇ m / hr and greater on the substrates 7, such as preferably indexable inserts.
• a pulse bias supply is preferred, preferably bipolar, for example with short positive and long negative voltage pulses, alternatively with alternating voltage (AC), and / or with DC supply at the substrate carrier 6 and one DC generator for the operation of each arc source connected.
• the arc sources are preferably additionally connected to a pulse generator, either with a pulse generator between two arc sources, ie an arc source pair, or a pulse generator per arc source, superimposed parallel to the associated DC supply, as described in WO 2006/099760 and which hereby declared the integral part of this application.
• An electronic ignition device is advantageously used, which enables the ignition of the arc sources even with an oxide occupancy of the cathodes (targets).
• a gas inlet system with connection for at least one inert gas 14 for heating or etching steps and connections for at least two reactive gases 12 (eg nitrogen, oxygen, hydrocarbons, borane hydrogen, silicon hydrogen, hydrogen etc.) for the coating is advantageously provided.
• gases 12 eg nitrogen, oxygen, hydrocarbons, borane hydrogen, silicon hydrogen, hydrogen etc.
• This makes it easy to produce multi-layer layers of different materials with just one target material.
• a metallic Adhesive layer followed by a nitridic or carbide hard layer followed by an oxide cover layer with hard or even flowing transitions between the individual materials of the different layer areas are deposited.
• the production of multi-layer layers with micro- or nanometer-thick layer layers are thus easily adjustable, as this only a corresponding change in the gas flows, such as nitrogen and oxygen, is made.
• such systems may consist of alternately deposited TiAIN / TiAIO, CrAIN / CrAIO, ZrAIN / ZrAIO layers.
• FIG. 10 a shows schematically a preferred PVD arc source arrangement 8, 21 for a single-chamber system 1 and as a two-dimensional section (b).
• an almost complete wrap-around of the cutting edge regions of the substrates 7 to be coated, in particular of indexable inserts, is achieved with good uniformity of the coating on the respective cutting surfaces E on both sides of the substrate carrier 6.
• the indexable insert as already mentioned, is simple and strongly based on CVD handling and the existing infrastructure in CVD technology.
• the indexable inserts are simply inserted into grids 25 'as shown in more detail in FIGS. 7a and 7b.
• the uniformity of the coating is achieved by the arc source assembly 8, 21, which are mounted in the recipient wall.
• the recipient consists of two hemispherical parts, in the middle of which the substrate carrier 6 is positioned with the grid 25 'with the indexable inserts 7 (FIG. 10). Accordingly, for multilayer systems based on different source materials, multiple sources, in particular source pairs with oppositely disposed sources, should be provided for different materials. It is convenient to arrange the sources accessible from the outside to the chamber wall, as shown in Figure 10.
• sources can also be positioned within a vacuum chamber, whereby the chamber wall is not additionally exposed, at least in the source area, inclined or curved must be formed when the sources are to be aligned to certain areas of substrate carrier assemblies.
• ionization sources or orifices may be disposed in front of the arc sources and heaters in the chamber, which is not shown here, but is known to those skilled in the art.
• FIG. 10 shows a particularly suitable arrangement with four source pairs 8, 21, that is to say with a total of eight sources, which are slightly inclined relative to one another and directed towards the substrate carrier.
• the coating conditions on the regions of the substrates to be coated can be set well, for example the deposition rates by individually different feeding of the sources with different arc currents or source power and / or the layer composition with different materials. These settings can also be varied during operation, whereby even different profiles, for example, the layer composition and / or the crystalline layer structure can be driven. You can also use only two source pairs or more than 4 source pairs, depending on the application. The source pairs may also be preferred in one direction, for example arranged in a line depending on how the substrates 7 are positioned with their cutting edges E positioned in the substrate carrier 6 and certain regions of the substrates 7, for example the cutting surface more or less preferably on certain Art to be coated.
• the at least one paired, opposing source arrangement 8, 21 and the two-dimensional design of the substrate carrier 6 between them replaces a necessary substrate rotation.
• the high evaporation rates of the PVD sources enable an economically high coating rate on the substrates 7.
• the cutting edges with the cutting surfaces of the indexable inserts are continuously exposed during the coating to the material flow of the solid sources, which allows targeted multilayer structures on the substrate, without causing any rotation of these structures.
• This feature of the presented process solution is of great importance for thick layer systems, in which the layer stress and other layer properties, such as hardness, must be controlled.
• the coating can advantageously take place without substrate movement, it is additionally possible to connect the substrate carrier 6 to a movement device 22 which moves it, for example, periodically relative to the PVD coating sources 8, 21, preferably in a horizontal movement, for example parallel to the horizontal transport plane.
• the substrate carrier 6 can accommodate at least 30 substrates 7, preferably up to a maximum of 1000.
• a very suitable lot size is preferably at least 200 pieces to a maximum of 600 pieces.
• a particularly important hard material coating arrangement comprises a source in which at least one cathode 11 contains one of the materials AL, Cr, Ti or Zr or its alloys, wherein at least one reactive gas container 13 contains the gas oxygen to the reactive coating.
• the system may have a loading robot outside the vacuum for the efficient charging or discharging of the substrate carrier 6 with the substrates 7, which is operatively connected to the transport device 5.
• the system door 4 can be designed as a vacuum lock for introducing at least one substrate carrier 6 into a pretreatment chamber 35 and / or vacuum processing chamber 1, 1a-1c.
• At least two, preferably a plurality of vacuum chambers 1, 1a-1c can be operated to communicate with one another via openings 4, preferably via locks 4, for processing a plurality of process steps, wherein at least one of the vacuum chambers 1, 1a-1c has at least one arc vapor source 8, 21 ,
• At least two arc evaporator sources 8, 8 ', 21, 21' can be arranged on one side, preferably on both sides, of the flat substrate carrier 6 and the surfaces of the associated cathodes 11 can be arranged inclined relative to one another in the direction of the substrate carrier 6 for focusing the material flow on preferred regions of the substrates 7, wherein the sources 8, 21 are preferably individually operable, for example by adjusting the arc current electrical power and / or pulse conditions.
• at least four arc evaporator sources 8, 8 ', 21, 21' are arranged on one side, preferably on both sides, of the planar substrate carrier 6, and the surfaces of the associated cathodes 11 are arranged inclined relative to one another in the direction of the substrate carrier 6, the sources preferably are individually operable.
• a layer deposited on the substrate 7 is economically produced on the side surfaces of the active cutting edge E with thicknesses in the range of 0.1 ⁇ m to 50 ⁇ m.
• this combination of flat substrate holder and directional PVD coating allows for the first time the setting of predetermined layer thickness ratios of free and rake surface without substrate rotation. This was not possible with previously known coating systems. This feature now makes it possible to realize a very application-specific design for indexable insert coating. What has been said here for the layer thickness adjustment can also be applied analogously to the combination of different materials, for example, a first material can preferably be deposited on the flank A and a second material preferably on the rake face B, ie it can be scouring and flanking. It can be separated and optimized for specific coating material, which was not possible until now.

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• Organic Chemistry (AREA)
• Physical Vapour Deposition (AREA)
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• 2008
  • 2008-11-13 US US12/270,415 patent/US8968830B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2008-11-17 WO PCT/CH2008/000485 patent/WO2009070903A1/de active Application Filing
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