Industrialization of MEVVA source ion implantation

Ion implantation is being successfully applied for the reduction of corrosion, wear and oxidation of materials. As a result, ion implantation as an engineering tool is a powerful and relatively important technique. In order to develop applications of ion implantation for precision tooling, moulds and large number of engineering components, improvement in the MEtal Vapor Vacuum Arc (MEVVA) source implantor for industrial ion implantation now offers more attractive costs per unit area and a potentially greater throughput. Material modification was produced by MEVVA source implantation at high target temperature (200∼550°C) with high ion flux (25∼100 μA/cm2). Metal ion implantation has yielded good results in the improvement of drills, cutters, dies, bearings and off-gas pumps for returnable artificial satellites using MEVVA source implantors. The results show that reduction of manufacturing costs and the challenges to improve component performance justify consideration of metal ion implantation in industrial processing. The ion implantation workshop was established with two implantors for industrial application. Millions of drills were processed per year. A large number of ion-implanted products have been exported up to now.