Equipment has been developed for deposition of decorative metal layers on plastic and metal articles with maximum dimension h130 mm x d235 mm. Auxiliary option provides for equipment fitting with ion-beam cleaning for adhesion improvement, and technology of deposition of NCVM (non-conductive vacuum metallization) coatings.

General characteristic

Equipment has rectangular chamber with two vertical doors. Holders with parts are loaded through doors. A door where sputtering takes place is closed, meanwhile another door is open for loading/unloading. Doors close and open automatically.

Holders are mounted on vacuum major drive shaft and rotate in the course of the production cycle. Three holders are processed in the batch at the same time. Chamber is equipped with easily removable protective screen for easy and fast maintenance.

Two DC magnetrons are mounted vertically on the right side of the chamber. Magnetrons provide proper coating of processed articles’ side surfaces, resulting in high-quality sputtering. Different metals can be deposited, including aluminum, chrome, stainless steel, brass, lead, copper..

The other chamber side can be provided with ion-beam cleaning source for preliminary surface processing.

Equipment has been developed to provide cycle time of 50-100 s depending on coating, material of an article and ambient conditions.

Advantages of the equipment:

• Small floor space, easy to operate, flexibility
• Short deposition cycle
• Synchronization of operation with conveyor.
• No delay between operations of main dying (priming), metallization and final sputtering reduce risks of staining with dust, vapor and finger prints. Standard customer’s holders are used.