Process Engineering

Challenges of Process Scaling

Often times people underestimate the challenges of scaling a process up from the lab to a production scale. Such challenges can be quite complex and solutions to problems may not be readily apparent due to the complexity of equipment for mass production. We have worked on scaling up such processes with cryogenic to high temperature, reactive and hazardous gases and multiple source deposition.

100 Years Combined experience

Our team has years of process engineering experience in many application areas including web coating, solar, optical and functional (hard) coatings. We have a deep understanding of the applicable deposition techniques and plasma physics and how these determine the coating properties.

System Design and Troubleshooting

Our experience also includes system design and troubleshooting.  Due to the intimate relationship between plasma sources and physical processes, an in depth understanding of the mechanical, electrical and control aspects of coatings systems is critical.

As vacuum coating systems quite often have lifetimes of 20+ years and deposition technologies are developing every day, there is often a need to retrofit production systems with new hardware and processes.  This can be more difficult than designing and bringing up a new system as there are many space and other constraints.  We have extensive expertise in how to engineer and integrate both hardware and process retrofits into existing equipment.