Bicester’s Hardide Coatings releases first product in new range

Hardide, an Oxfordshire-based manufacturer of advanced surface coating technology, has launched the first in a new range of ready coated components with a copper nozzle used in High-Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) thermal spray coating.

The company says its tungsten/tungsten carbide-based Hardide chemical vapour deposition can extend the operational life of HVOF thermal spray copper nozzles by 5 to 40 times when spraying carbide or metallic-based powders.

Its coating minimises pickup inside the nozzle when spraying metallic materials. This prevents material dislodging and forming a defect in the HVOF coating, therefore improving coating quality, reducing downtime and the cost of spraying.

The reduced need for nozzle changes also decreases the risk of breaking the water circuit, while fewer clogs in the nozzle reduce the chances of defects like spits or unmelted powder clusters in the coating, thus eliminating the need for rework.

The Hardide coating is compatible with a wide range of coating materials used in HVOF processes, allowing for seamless integration with existing coating systems.

Hardide has been trialling the product with a global OEM in the US and coating services companies in Germany and Italy. The copper nozzles will be manufactured in Germany and coated at Hardide’s UK manufacturing facility for global shipping.

Steve Paul, Interim CEO of Hardide, said: “This is an extremely exciting new product development which offers significant performance, cost and environmental advantages to users of HVOF equipment.

“By Hardide coating the internal diameter of copper nozzles used in thermal spraying, our enhanced component offers superior wear resistance and reduced pickup.

“This significantly extends the working life of the part thus improving productivity and reducing the spraying cost.

“We have had a lot of interest from OEMs and thermal spray companies in transforming the performance and durability of their HVOF spray equipment and we were pleased to ship our first production orders this week.

“This is the first in a range of ready coated copper nozzles of varying sizes and other OEM equipment which we intend to launch on an ongoing basis.”