Hitemco creates a wide variety of surfaces using numerous materials applied in different ways.
Hitemco Southwest's Plastic’s Division coats a wide variety of part sizes from the very small to the very large. However, it is our ability to properly handle and coat large parts which sets us apart from all others.
Hitemco Southwest has the largest curing ovens in the United States. We routinely handle large vessels, rigs and system components that weigh up to 70,000 pounds and measure up to 55 feet in length. Whatever your coating requirements are, Hitemco Southwest can plan a controlled process to expertly and confidently meet and exceed your requirements. Our engineers can design custom handling fixtures to ensure safety and coating consistency. Hitemco Southwest’s processes are designed to meet your specific production needs.
Large parts are often coated to address the following needs
Hitemco Southwest has extensive experience applying other plastic coatings that are not considered fluoropolymers. Two important plastic coatings are Nylon and PPS.
Nylon. Nylons are environmentally friendly coatings that are extremely durable. They have high impact resistance, corrosion resistance, chemical resistance and a glossy surface.
Ryton® PPS. PPS is a thermoplastic that is characterized by thermal stability, creep resistance, chemical resistance and non-flammability without flame retardant additives.
Nylons are widely used in the water and food industries.
Fluoropolymer coatings, both liquid and powder, are applied to parts of almost any size and shape. Fluoropolymer coatings, at times, can be combined with other coating systems to meet the exacting standards our customers demand.
Hitemco Southwest is, and has been, a Licensed DuPont Industrial Applicator (LIA)since 1974. Hitemco Southwest was selected by DuPont because of our extensive knowledge and expertise in recommending and applying Teflon® industrial coatings as well as for the quality of its workmanship. DuPont keeps its LIAs abreast of new technologies and Hitemco Southwest stays on the leading edge with this knowledge.
DuPont manufactures and Hitemco Southwest applies six types of Teflon® coatings:
Whitford Worldwide, another leader in fluoropolymer manufacturing, supplies Hitemco Southwest with a host of coating systems from which we can select to hone the surface enhancement needs of our customers.
Those systems include the following:
Continental Coatings provides us with Kynar® (PVDF) as well.
Solvay Solexis manufactures Halar® ECTFE and supplies Hitemco Southwest for uses when chemical protection and / or electrical properties are necessary.
Fluoropolymers are plastics characterized by their resistance to corrosion, acids and bases. They also provide excellent release and non-wetting properties, have a low coefficient of friction and are stable. In addition, they are excellent for use in protecting metal surfaces from abrasion and provide a great source of dry film lubrication.
Many fluoropolymer systems are compliant with FDA standards for use on food contact surfaces. From the finest cookware available to complex systems used to launch the Space Shuttle and other rockets, fluoropolymers have a functional use that touches most everyone every day and are used in a multitude of industrial and commercial applications
Hiramic, developed by Hitemco Southwest, is a family of multi-functional, dual phase, hybrid coating systems that successfully marries the hardness and abrasion resistance of ceramics or other inorganic materials to the non-stick and lubricative properties of fluorocarbons and other polymers.
Hiramic coatings work with the particular micro-structure of the inorganic base coat through careful control of the porosity and certain physical parameters of the infusent polymeric. It is then possible to create a matrix in which the infusent is trapped. As the system is abraded, the surface coating is gradually removed exposing "wear plateaus" of the substructure. These wear plateaus provide the abrasion resistance for the system while the entrapped infusent continues to provide lubricity or release properties.
As a wear resistant release coating, Hiramic coatings can reduce costs by increasing the service life of critical components with a corresponding reduction in maintenance costs and replacement part inventories. "Downtime" is limited, resulting in improved production rates, consistency and quality.
Hiramic is used in food processing equipment like candy rollers, commercial bakeware, bagel blades, bakery pans, filler tubes, cookie/cracker rollers, as well as extruder components, high temperature platens, pharmaceutical packaging equipment, probes and commercial laundries.
HVOF (High Velocity Oxygen Fuel) is a thermal spray process where a powdered metal is injected into a high-pressure, hot gas stream where they are accelerated up to twice the speed of sound, melted into a semi-molten state and blasted onto a substrate, which has been roughened by abrasive blasting. The particles then flatten, one on top of another, creating a coating with a mechanical bond in excess of 10,000 psi with porosity and oxide content of 1% or less. The HVOF process is suitable for applying WC/Co, WC/CoCr, CrC/NiCr, NiCr/Si/B and also for depositing wear and corrosion resistant alloys such as Inconel (NiCrFe), Triballoy (CoMoCr), and Hastelloy (NiCrMo) materials.
Contrasted with chrome plating, HVOF could be considered a “Green Technology” as there is no hexavalent chromium, hazardous air emissions, or large volume of rinse water consumed. The coatings are very dense with high hardness and tensile strength and exhibit excellent fatigue, corrosion and embrittlement results. They can be used in hot and acidic corrosion environments where chrome plating wouldn’t be recommended. Usually the HVOF process cannot be used to apply ceramic materials because the flame temperature is lower than the melting point of the ceramics.
HVOF coatings are typically applied for sliding, fretting, abrasive wear resistance, corrosion resistance, cavitation and erosion resistance, dimensional restoration and applications where impact is anticipated. HVOF coatings can be used in applications where extremely smooth surface finishes are required. In the case of chrome replacement, the surface after diamond grinding is very similar to polished chrome while providing significant advantages. Heavy build-ups to ten times the thickness capability compared to other thermal spraying methods, such as in the case of restoration of dimension, are possible. HVOF coating are used in diverse industries such as the Aircraft Airframe, Turbine Engine, Landing Gear, Precision Control Components, Land-Based Steam & Gas Turbine, Oil & Gas Exploration, Petro-Chemical, Heavy Equipment, Steel Mill, Pulp & Paper, Printing, Valves, Agriculture, Mold & Die and Wire Drawing. New applications are being developed on a regular basis as Design and Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul Engineers learn about the advantages of HVOF Coatings.
Hitemco is the industry leader in the application of HVOF coatings. Our experience dates to the early development of HVOF coating systems as a replacement for Hard Chrome. Hitemco was chosen to provide HVOF test samples for hard chrome replacement in conjunction with the Department of Defense tri-service/industry HCAT (Hard Chrome Alternative Team) program. This program, with the collaboration of the Joint Group on Pollution Prevention (JGPP), qualified HVOF thermal spray coatings as a replacement for hard chrome plating in the manufacturing and repair of aircraft landing gear. Hitemco developed and currently applies in production, unique HVOF coatings as well as application of standard specification coatings for aircraft airframe and power plant OEMs. Three locations (Old Bethpage, NY, Houston, TX and St-Laurent, Quebec) provide HVOF coating services and low stress, diamond grinding.
An inert primary gas such as nitrogen or argon, in combination with a secondary gas such as hydrogen or helium, runs rapidly through a high-voltage DC electric arc (typically 40kW to 80kW) generated between a water-cooled tungsten electrode and an annular water-cooled copper anode. The gas is heated, disassociated and ionized, forming the plasma "flame", which can reach temperatures up to 30,000 F, hot enough to spray any inorganic material, which melts without decomposing. Inert gas forces coating powder into the plasma stream where it is melted/plasticized and deposited onto the substrate at velocities roughly from 262 to 984 ft./sec. Creative cooling techniques keep surface temperatures low so as to not affect any prior thermal treatment.
Plasma arc spraying extends the capabilities of the thermal spray coating process via higher flame temperatures, making it the most versatile with respect to materials selections. In addition to the ability to melt and deposit powders of virtually any metal alloy, plasma arc spray systems can accommodate coating materials with very high melting points such as ceramics, cermets, refractory alloys, and superalloys. Because it uses inert gas and deposits at high temperatures, plasma spray produces coatings with mechanical and metallurgical properties generally superior to flame spray coatings with high integrity, density, bond and tensile strengths. The process can apply coating materials at relatively high deposition rates, and has the ability to spray uniformly thick, chemically homogeneous coatings. Another benefit of the plasma process is its versatility in changing flame temperatures, particle velocities, and conditions. This versatility enables a wider selection of material chemistries and particle-size distributions. The disadvantages of plasma spray relative to flame spray systems can be the high cost of the process due to the high energy usage
The most prevalent application today for plasma sprayed coatings is thermal barrier protective coatings (TBC's). The high temperatures associated with the plasma allow for deposition of high melting-point ceramics such as yttria-stabilized zirconia for thermal barrier applications developed for aerospace use. Similarly, in the past few years the land-based, gas and steam turbine industries have been adopting plasma spray technology on liners, transitions, turbine nozzles, and rotating blades/buckets to name a few. The success of plasma sprayed coatings in aircraft component manufacturing applications (the largest market) has led to applications in other markets including the paper, packaging, steel, textile, chemical, and oil and gas industries. The variety of plasma sprayed materials not only provides thermal and electrical insulation, corrosion resistance, and wear resistance of components in almost any type of wear situation, but allows designs in which expensive materials can be replaced by cheaper coated materials.
Description – Surface alloying with Aluminum, Chromium, Silicon, or combinations thereof into the parent alloy to form a high temperature oxidation, corrosion, and wear resistant intermetallic coating for many common alloys (Fe, Ni, Cu, Co – based).
Benefits / Limitations – High temperature oxidation and corrosion resistance (>1800F) by forming an impervious intermetallic layer to oxygen diffusion into the parent alloy. Coating is limited to powder accessibility. Provides oxidation resistance and acid / sulfidation corrosion protection. Intergrally bonded to substrate and will not peel or spall. Intermetallic is brittle and can be prone to chipping if not handled carefully. Provides surface finish between 150 – 250 micro-inches.
R900 provides and excellent non-stick ceramic conversion coating to the surface of components which prevent braze splatter or build-up from forming.
Markets / Applications – Gas turbine components including blades , vanes (nozzles) , as well as many industrial applications such as pipes, tubes, heat exchangers, brazing fans, impellers, fixtures and pallets.
Description - Surface alloying with Silicon and other metals to provide high temperature oxidation resistance for many refractory alloys (Nb, W, Ta,, Mo,)
New R522 silicide incorporates a ceramic top coat layer for higher temperature capability and other property enhancements.
Benefits / Limitations - High temperature oxidation resistance (>2500F) for critical mission components. Coating provides self healing barrier to prevent oxygen from diffusing into the substrate. Limited to refractory alloys which can be coated at very high temperatures. Ceramic top coat layer has additional temperature capability, improved wear and erosion resistance, and the potential of other properties (e.g., emittance).
Markets / Applications – Liquid fuel rocket thrusters, extension nozzles, hot section gas turbine components such as refractory blades, vanes, combustor components and hot section / exhaust components.
Description – Surface alloying with Aluminum or Chromium into the parent alloy to form a high temperature oxidation, corrosion, and wear resistant intermetallic coating for many common alloys (Fe, Ni, Co) and refractory (Nb, Ta, W, Mo) components.
Benefits / Limitations – High temperature oxidation and corrosion resistance (2000+ F for Fe, Ni, Co alloys and up to 2700F for Nb, Ta, W, Mo alloys) by forming an impervious intermetallic layer to oxygen diffusion into the parent alloy. Coating is NOT limited to line of site and can be applied to small holes, grooves, and channels. Provides thousands of hours cyclic and static oxidation resistance and sulfidation protection. Integrally bonded to substrate and will not peel or spall. Intermetallic is brittle and can be prone to chipping if not handled carefully. Provides excellent (smooth) surface finish.
Vapor Phase Coating provides very high (>2700F) oxidation resistant protection to rocket thruster applications for short mission cycles.
Markets / Applications – Gas turbine components including blades , vanes (nozzles) , heat shields, combustor components, as well as many industrial applications such as pipes, tubes, heat exchangers, gate valves/stems. Refractory alloy short-term rocket thrusters.
A thermal spraying process variation in which an oxyfuel gas flame (oxy-acetylene, oxy-propane, or oxy-hydrogen) is the source of heat for melting the surfacing material in powder form. The powder is fed from a reservoir directly to the gun where it is melted and propelled onto a previously prepared substrate. Combustion flame temperatures are around 3000C (5430F), but may vary somewhat depending on specific gas and fuel ratios. Ordinarily, the gun requires no air, but an air cooler may be attached to the gun to reduce overheating on small work or thin sections. Extensions are available for coating inside diameters.
Particle velocities are low, typically around 40 to 100m/sec, and vary with particle density, shape, and surface texture. The low particle velocity results in coatings that generally have higher porosity levels and greater levels of oxides within their microstructure than other thermal spray processes. The slower particle velocity results in greater oxidation and decomposition of critical elements. In spite of these limitations, low-velocity combustion processes have been successful in many applications. In some cases, coatings applied by other systems such as plasma spray and HVOF, may provide the best characteristics, but may not be practical because of the unacceptable application expenses, making the powder flame spray system a viable alternative.
The powder flame spraying process permits the use of an almost infinite variety of metals, self-fluxing alloys, self-bonding alloys, ceramics and cermets, which are available as powders. Abradable materials are also commonly applied by Powder Flame Spraying for clearance control applications in gas turbines.
Wire flame spraying, sometimes referred to as “Metallizing” is the process of melting a pure or alloyed metal in a wire form, using an oxygen/fuel gas flame, then atomizing and spraying the molten metal by a blast of compressed air onto a surface to form a coating. This spray builds up onto a previously prepared surface to form a solid metal coating. Sprayed metal is a new metallurgical material with entirely different physical properties than the original metal sprayed. Sprayed metal is generally harder, more brittle, and more porous than the original metal
Sprayed metal has excellent bearing characteristics, due to oil retention in the pores. Because the molten metal is accompanied by a large blast of air, the object being sprayed does not heat up very much, which gives it the reputation of being a “Cold” process.
This system is suitable for all purpose use to apply coatings of wires including: Aluminum, zinc, Babbitt, steel, molybdenum, bronze, copper, monel, and nickel to name a few. Wire spray systems have many miscellaneous uses-such as electrical shielding, electrical conductive elements for radiant heaters, soldering connections for carbon resistors and brushes, rectifier plates, electrolytic condenser plates, decorative uses, etc. 4) Other: Wire flame spraying was first invented in 1910 by Schoop in Switzerland and introduced into the United States in about 1920.
Two metallizing wires are melted in an electric arc, and the molten particles are projected onto a prepared surface to build-up an adherent coating. The arc spray system, simultaneously and continuously, feeds two metallizing wires at a uniform rate of speed, through replaceable tip, two-piece electrical contact tubes, which electrically energize the wires and also guide them to an intersecting point. Once energized, each of the metallizing wires is surrounded by an ionized field; one positive field, one negative field. When the fields intersect, an electric arc is established and maintained between the wires. The arc melts the wires as rapidly as they are fed thru the gun. A nozzle, located directly behind the intersection point of the wires, blasts high velocity air onto the molten tips of the wires, producing a fine metal spray. The fine metal spray particles are propelled onto a prepared surface, where they mesh to produce a coating of the desired metal.
Among the many advantages, electric arc systems don’t require the use of bottled gasses-just electricity and air. They can easily and safely be moved to different locations within the plant or on-site, and are most convenient for start/stop operations. Low application temperatures enable coatings to be successfully applied to plastic, paper mache, wax, clay, leather, wood and cloth or fabric.
Electric arc systems are commonly used to apply materials such as aluminum, zinc, zinc/aluminum, bronze, and stainless steels. Applications are as diverse as EMI-RFI and static discharge, corrosion control of steel and reinforced concrete used in infrastructures, mold making, conductive surfaces, non-slip surfaces, solderable surfaces and restoration of dimensions, to name a few.
By utilizing a group of certified suppliers in our area and under our direction, Hitemco is providing one-stop part processing solution for parts.
Including our thermal spray (Plasma and HVOF) coating and grinding in-house capability, we are providing the following capabilities:
Our design objective is to provide our customers the convenience of one order point for many part-processing capabilities.
The advantages include:
The ability to analyze the characteristics of a high performance coating is critical in both development and production. That work is done in metallurgical laboratories. Hitemco and Hitemco Southwest have on-site met labs that aid in the development of new coatings and processes and test production coatings to ensure that they meet the agreed upon specifications. These labs have the following capabilities:
Typical Lab Tests include:
Line of sight process using a number of different methods to heat and accelerate semi-molten particles for deposition onto a substrate previously prepared by grit blasting. This is the most common application method for metals, carbides and ceramics. Specific systems utilized by Hitemco to apply these materials include plasma, HVOF, electric arc, and powder & wire flame spray. After application of the coating material, the resultant coating is commonly ground or machined to finished size by Hitemco or sometimes used in the "as sprayed" condition.
High temperature alloying type of coating used to apply metals such as aluminum and chromium, as well as silicides and the like. Parts to be coated must be able to withstand high temperature curing process, generally in a vacuum or controlled environment furnace. Processes include gas vapor, pack cementation, and slurries. Coatings are thin and alloyed in to the substrate.
Application of fluoropolymer, nylon, and other high performance organic and plastic coatings for non-stick/release, corrosion resistance, and dry film lubrication. Coatings are applied and cured by a specially controlled and calibrated industrial heating process unmatched by any other coater in the USA.
To truly deliver a high performance surface often requires more than just applying a great coating. Additional processing provides pre-coated surface enhancement such as shot peen and heat treat, or after coat enhancement such as grinding/polishing or painting. Some customers need special certifications or quality documentation. Hitemco can also provide the overall Project Management of multi source surface treatments (what we call the "one stop shop") including all logistical support. Over the years we have invested heavily and created substantial in-house capabilities in these areas.
High performance surfaces created by thermal spray are sometimes complete “as-coated” but often require a precision grind and/or polish to be ready for application in a customer's product. This additional processing step may be needed, for example, to protect against wear to other parts (i.e. seals), fluid flow around parts (i.e. aerodynamic properties) or for appearance. In addition, parts that need to be refurbished often require pre-machining or grinding to get prepared for subsequent coating.
To support our mission, Hitemco and Hitemco Southwest have added a full range of Cylindrical CNC (OD and ID) and flat grinding and polishing capabilities. Recent additions in 2008 (OD) and 2009 (OD/ID) include two state-of-the-art, computer controlled, Studer Grinding Machine Centers at Hitemco.
Hitemco's quality objective is to produce defect free products, delivered on time, at competitive prices, and in conformance with requirements.
Hitemco is committed to develop, produce, and deliver product and services that consistently conform to customer requirements and to pursue the goal of 100% error-free performance through formal product, process, and management quality development.
The quality policies and systems for Hitemcoand Hitemco Southwest have evolved organically at each location.
Hitemco's Quality Policy:
The Quality System is based on AS-9100 and is certified compliant to NQA-1 and is NADCAP accredited. Accredation to AS-9100, Rev. B is in the works.
Hitemco Southwest’s Quality Policy:
The quality policy is based on ISO 9001as it is an ISO 9001:2008 registered company.
