Physical vapour deposition and plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition (PVD and PACVD) are environmentally-friendly vacuum deposition technologies involving a deposition of material on the surface of the parts to be treated.

They make it possible to obtain coatings having:

• thicknesses which can vary from several nanometres to several tens of microns
• hardnesses ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 HV

Depending on the coating chosen, they thus give the parts treated:

• Tribological properties: very low coefficient of friction
• Mechanical properties: very high hardness
• Electromagnetic shielding properties
• Optical properties
• Electrical conductivity properties
• Antibacterial properties
• Decorative properties
• …

This process is implemented in a vacuum vessel in which a plasma is created.
HEF mainly uses 3 methods to generate its plasmas and produce high-quality layers:

• PEMS®:
PEMS® permits the production of very dense layers for tribological use. This process is more particularly used by HEF for the production of its low coefficient of friction hard or extra-hard layers. Moreover, PEMS® makes it possible to modify the hardness, the density and resistance of deposits to suit the application.

• CAM®:
At the cutting edge of vacuum technology, CAM® constitutes a genuine evolution, permitting the deposition of hard and very low coefficient of friction coatings at an extremely low temperature.

• M-ARC®:
This method is an evolution of the usual arc evaporation technique. It considerably reduces the droplets generally associated with this type of coating.

In a strong position because of this control of processes, the HEF Group has developed a series of coatings which cover a very wide area of thin layer applications:

• Reduction of friction and wear: CERTESS™ CARBON
• Increase in the lifetime of mechanical parts: CERTESS™ NITRO
• Electromagnetic shielding on polymers: PROCEM™
• Aluminium alloy corrosion protection: CORRALU™ V
• Erosion protection: CERTESS™ BLAST
• Other surface properties: optical application, decorative application, more particularly on large parts