Hard Eco Innovative Coatings - HEI-Coat

Project summary

Hard Chrome (HC) coatings for anticorrosion and anti-wear applications cover a wide market share ranging from automotive to aerospace. To date, HC electrolytic plating, used for more than seventy years for engineering applications, has dominated the wear coatings market, because of its simple and cheap coating method. Unfortunately, hexavalent Cr(VI) in the electrolytic baths is toxic and carcinogenic, and the overall deposition process itself is highly risky for both workers’ health and environment. For that reason, according to the Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, by 2017 the production of HC with Cr(VI) baths will be banned. It is then mandatory to find alternative materials and/or methodologies of deposition. The HEI-Coat project aims at developing innovative coatings deposited by the environmental friendly Cold Gas Spray technique or by the more conventional Electroplating Technology, with functional properties similar or better to the ones presented by HC