NFC is an innovative coating technology using plasma energy. In a vacuum furnace, the depressurization and temperature of various reactive gases are controlled to generate a ceramic diffusion layer.

The hard coating appears at an incline in the depth direction, so that the coefficient of friction is small and the coating is resistant against heat shock. The temperature of the process is low, under 500° C, and has little warping or distortion.

For tool steel, for example, the surface hardness is 1300 HV. NFC processing is ideally suited as a measure against chipping for press dies, die cast molds, plastic molds and cutting tools.

NFC may be combined with TiN (titanium nitride) or TiCN (titanium carbon nitride) physical vapor deposition to compensate for adhesion, a weakness in the PVD process.

Heat Treatment

Vacuum heat treatment allows quenching of automobile press dies and other large dies with little warping or distortion. To provide the optimal heat treatment, they select one from more than 20 different quenching and tempering methods.

Heat treatment is carried out between two and four times a day for SKD11 and other steels. Using the advantages of a 24-hour operation, their lead time is extremely short, as little as 14 hours. The material SK generally has more warping than SKD due to heat treatment, cancelling out the advantageous workability of SK.

Kentech has therefore created a unique process suited for precision SK molds that minimizes warping and is popular with customers.

This has recently been applied to flame-hardened steel, and has an excellent effect on complex automobile dies as well.

Kentech is the first company in the heat treatment industry to use digital imaging technology in quality and process control, one more way they are making further advances in their industry.