b'Anytime that you can make the tool last longer, its a great benefit.Coatings Covered which completely change the per- Job coating services need to formance of the coating for manygather enough tools to fill up a different applications. batch, and they tend to run a special a thin, highly adherent coating. coating cycle maybe once a week, PVD is a line-of-sight process, soBene ts of In-House Coating Haack said. But if youre doing it the surface you want to coat needsCoating tools in-house providesin-house, you can control the timing to be in line with the evaporatorclear advantages, starting with theyourself, so the degree of flexibility to create a uniform coating, Hal- difference in costs compared withis much higher.ter said. So if were talking aboutcoating at an outside shop. CoatingFor critical industries with spe-shank-type cutting tools, you needconsumes relatively small amountscific quality control needs, having to rotate them in the chamber toof electricity, gas and metal fromthe equipment in-house also can get a consistent coating thicknessthe target. make the quality process simplerdistribution. Lets say it costs $2 to have ani.e., fewer external supplier audits, Scheibe believes that 80% to 85%endmill coated at a coating shop,Halter said.of coatings applied to cutting toolsHaack said. But if you have your today are PVD coatings. own machine, coating the same toolLimitations of In-House CoatingWith PVD, you can play with thewould cost about 20 cents, not in- In addition to the initial invest-hardness, the coefficient of fric- cluding the capex and labor costs. ment in equipment, there are other tion, the temperature and the ma- Other benefits of bringing coat- considerations when bringing coat-terial composition, he said. Youing services in-house are flexibilitying capabilities in-house. For ex-have all these different materials,and simplicity. ample, a company might need to Ready to help you select the right industrial pump or parts washerwww.graymills.com | 877.465.786752JULY 2020Toolcoatings.indd 52 6/16/20 11:49 AM'