Balzers, Liechtenstein, 18 September 2017 – At EMO 2017, taking place in Hanover from 18 to 23 September 2017, Oerlikon Balzers reveals the secret behind the adverts promising “The Art of Coating”: the ground-breaking, innovative performance of BALIQ coatings is now available in a stunning range of colours with BALIQ UNIQUE.
The innovative S3p (Scalable Pulsed Power Plasma) technology, first presented in 2011, became reality in 2013 with the new BALIQ family of coatings. Thanks to this “smooth revolution”, tool manufacturers could now use new, wear-resistant coatings which allow smooth chip removal and make mechanical post-treatment unnecessary. With high thickness, excellent hardness, remarkable precision and high levels of scalability, BALIQ technology was tailor-made for the tool market.
Now, at this year’s EMO, the coating specialists from Liechtenstein present the next leap forward in innovation: BALIQ UNIQUE, “The Art of Coating”. These solutions, while featuring the same BALIQ quality as before, dazzle in a brand new range of colours which leaves the humdrum grey of standard tools in the shadows. However, the gleaming colours are more than just pleasing on the eye; they meet the demands of tool manufacturers, who need to differentiate, classify and visualise their products. They can now assign specific colours to their tool types or groups, select appropriate colours for particular applications, create a unique overall look for their product range and, as if that was not enough, use the colour to measure the degree of abrasion.
The result is that manufacturers in the global tool market can now develop unique colour combinations for their range of tools – all thanks to BALIQ’s still-revolutionary performance.
BALIQ UNIQUE for drills, endmills, reamers, taps and thread formers and micro-tools
All these benefits are currently available for drills, endmills, reamers, taps, thread formers and micro-tools, and development is already in progress to extend these applications even further. Like all BALIQ coatings, BALIQ UNIQUE gives performance improvements of up to 400% (based on the example of a micro-drill with a diameter of 0.6mm). Even thread formers can see their service life extended by 150%, and for reamers the improvement is up to 86%.
Presenting the new INLENIA pica and INLENIA kila S3p coating systems
At EMO, Oerlikon Balzers is also presenting two new systems based on S3p technology: INLENIA pica and INLENIA kila. While the extremely quick coating times makes INLENIA pica ideal for ramping up smaller batches, INLENIA kila is the logical next step for high-volume production runs. With a load capacity of up to 12 spindles, it is perfect for standard coatings and is extremely versatile.
“The enormous improvement in performance achieved by tools with BALIQ coating is now available in colour for the first time with BALIQ UNIQUE. This allows our customers to differentiate between their own product ranges, introduce colour coding, classify their individual products and visualise the benefits of the tools they manufacture. All this is based on our S3p technology, which is now in use in the two new INLENIA pica and INLENIA kila systems. We are proud to carry on the success story of recent years, and to continue to offer our customers market-beating performance with a truly unique look”, said a delighted Marc Desrayaud, Head of Balzers Industrial Solutions.