PROwESS - Innovative PROcEss control to achieve Selective Surface coating.

The UK engineering coatings industry is worth >£11bn affecting products worth £140bn. The Surface Engineering and Coatings market for the automotive sector being £2bn/year. Internal bore coating of automotive components such as damper tubes are a very important aspect of this market. Keronite have developed a Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) coating technology that has the potential to achieve widespread application for functional components with particular application to internal surfaces. However, to achieve required performance at acceptable costs, we need to develop a fundamentally new approach to the selective coating of metal part using an automated process to achieve critical functional coatings. PROWESS will develop a high value manufacturing approach with improved deposition control to achieve selective PEO surface coverage down to 25sq.mm. This will have particular application for internal functional surface coatings specifically for tubes and hollow sections. By achieving this, we will be able to increase output rates by up to 400% and reduce costs by >60%.