Topics & News Release

Toyo Advanced Technologies Co., Ltd. (Head office: Minami-ku, Hiroshima City, President: Yoshiaki Hongo; "Toyo" hereinafter) has installed a new model PVD (physical vapor deposition) furnace, introduced at the Head Office Plant in March of last year, at Toyo's East Japan Plant (Fukaya City, Saitama Pref.). This marks the start of full-scale operation of this furnace. Provision of this "low-temperature TiC" service, a strategic product developed in-house at Toyo, at the East Japan Plant is in addition to that provided at the Central Japan Plant (Kasugai City, Aichi Pref.) and the Head Office Plant, with plans to expand the service through these three bases.

The furnace introduced at the East Japan Plant is the TF-778N Model, a large arc-ion plating PVD furnace, with a maximum treatment dimension of 700 mm (diam.) by 700 mm (height), and a maximum treatment weight of 300 kg. Using simulation of the effects of magnetic fields on film formation as well as quality engineering, Toyo was able to adopt control systems capable of forming dense coating films at high speed in order to provide the formation of films with even higher quality and performance. Not only has Toyo achieved high levels of hardness and toughness by optimizing the crystalline structure of film, but excellent sliding performance is achieved by dramatically decreasing droplets* at the time of film formation.

Toyo developed low-temperature TiC as a strategic product for the expanding PVD coating market and started full-scale sales in April 2007 (commissioned production). Toyo low-temperature TiC provides TiC film, which CVD (chemical vapor deposition) used to provide as proven film for coating press dies, through low temperature PVD. The dimensions and shapes of dies after coating is extremely precise, and they possess the merits of excellent abrasion resistance and sliding performance. This excellent performance has received high praise in the market and demand for it is steadily growing. Until now, low-temperature TiC treatment had been focused on Toyo's Central Japan Plant but some amount of time is required to transport dies to and from the Central Japan Plant due to its distant location. For this reason, there were many instances of requests for low-temperature TiC treatment where the desired deadline could not be met. The first step to counter this problem and expand treatment capacity was the introduction of a TF-778N model at the Head Office Plant in March 2014, located near Kyushu where the automobile industry is concentrated, as a means to expand this service.

By installing this furnace now at Toyo's East Japan Plant, located near the northeast of the country where concentration of the automotive industry continues to grow, Toyo can also expand low-temperature TiC to further north of the Kanto region. By providing low-temperature TiC service at all three of Toyo's plants related to the surface treatment business (Head Office, Central Japan, and East Japan Plants), the company has effectively expanded its low-temperature TiC treatment capacity. In addition to expanding sales, this allows Toyo to provide coating treatment at factories near our customers, while service in relation to deadlines has been enhanced by the ability to divide treatment processes among other plants even if treatment is concentrated at a particular plant. In the future, Toyo will continue to strive to expand low-temperature TiC as well as develop new films as means to further grow our surface treatment business.

*: Droplets
This refers to the phenomena that occurs when arc discharge is applied to the target (coating film materials), causing localized liquefaction of the target, followed by the target scattering while it is solidifying, and this results in droplets adhering to the coated workpiece.