Chair for Experimental Physics II - Reactive Plasmas

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Complete projects

Development of innovative thermal insulating layers and coating processes for injection molding tools

In order to produce high-quality injection molds, the optimization of the molding process parameters plays a crucial role. The application of thermal barrier coatings onto the molding block slightly slows down the cooling of the plastics injected into it. This increases the energy efficiency of the injection process, without compromising the quality of the manufactured parts. To produce these barrier coatings metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) combined with plasma activation is explored (PECVD). Significant improvements are expected regarding the achievable growth rates of the coatings (>500 nm/h) as well as the required layer thicknesses (<30 μm). Injection molds for plastics processing require coatings for corrosion protection and thermal insulation. For this, a low permeation of the coating material is necessary to avoid the contact of tool surfaces with corrosive media and thus extend their lifetime. The project investigates the insulating effect of deposited zirconium oxide ceramic coatings. The development and characterisation of deposited ceramic layers will be the main focus of this project. Measurements via the 3w method will be used to perform in-situ measurements of the thermal conductivity of the layers.

Videos

A video in German presenting the deposition chamber can be found here: