Innovative steel strip coatings by means of PVD in a continuous pilot line: process technology and coating development

Based on PVD coating of already conventionally zinc-coated steel strip novel approaches to highly corrosion resistant zinc alloy coatings have been developed on a laboratory scale. In this paper, the successful up-scaling of such an approach to a continuous pilot line with line speed up to 60 m/min and strip width of 300 mm is reported. The PVD technology of the pilot line comprises different plasma cleaning processes, thermal evaporation by means of radiation heating as well as electron beam evaporation. First results of coating development by means of evaporating thin additional layers of different metals on already conventionally zinc coated steel strip will be presented.