Acree Technologies

Acree Technologies has developed erosion resistant coatings that are extremely effective against airborne particle impact, erosion and wear. The coatings were optimized using Finite Element (FE) computer modeling, and they consist of a very hard and tough ceramic multilayer coating system. The coatings have been tested extensively for erosion resistance under a wide variety of particle impact angles and speeds on a number of substrates. The coatings are thin, so dimensional tolerances are not affected. Because of their hardness, toughness and ease of application, these coatings can be used on virtually any component suffering from erosion or wear. Complex shapes can be coated because Acree uses a specialized non-line-of-sight coating process. Any turbine engine or rotary compressor that suffers from erosion due to airborne particle impact will benefit from these coatings.

DLC is an acronym for diamond-like carbon. DLC has some of the valuable properties of diamond, including: high hardness, low friction, resistance to wear, chemical inertness, biological compatability, electrical insulation, optical transparency, and smoothness. In common terms, DLC is harder than natural diamond and slicker than "Teflon." DLC coatings are used to impart some of the useful characteristics of diamonds onto other materials. DLC coatings can be deposited on nearly all metals, metal alloys, and also on nonmetals such as silicon, glass, ceramics, plastics, etc. DLC can be deposited at low (

cree has developed wear resistant coatings that offer superior protection against abrasive, adhesive and surface fatigue wear for gears, bearings, bushings and other high-wear surfaces. We offer a wide variety of coatings that provide improved surface hardness and toughness. A number of material approaches are used, such as titanium nitride and carbide. Typical hardness values for the TiCN system range from 2270 – 3150 HV, depending upon the exact composition. For reference, heat treated tool steel possesses a hardness of about 850 HV. While improvements are obtained with single layer coatings, multilayer coatings add additional features, such as combining low surface friction and high hardness simultaneously. Multilayer and nanoscale engineered structures provide improved performance for wear characteristics. Examples include nanocomposite materials and super lattice multilayer films. These structures can also be graded to improve adhesive strength and reduce stress.