Teer Coatings Limited

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Teer Coatings Limited Coatings for Fuel Cells
Hydrogen Applications
Kevin Cooke
Teer Coatings Ltd, West Stone House, Berry Hill
Industrial Estate, Droitwich, Worcestershire,
WR9 9AS, UK www.teercoatings.co.uk
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Outline of Presentation

• Introduction to Teer Coatings Ltd
• TCLs proprietary technology Closed Field
  Unbalanced Magnetron Sputter Ion Plating
  (CFUBMSIP)
• Applications in Fuel Cells and Hydrogen
• Example coatings for PEM cell electrodes
• TCLs Low Carbon related Collaborative Research
• Summary Conclusions
• Acknowledgements

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Company History
ISO9001 2008

• Key Facts
• Turnover Approaching 4-5M/yr
• Equipment Sales Approaching 2-3M/yr
• High Proportion of Export Sales
• Now 57 Employees

US Patent Dymon-iC 2008
25 yrs! 2007
ISO9001 2003
New Factory 2004
3rd Building 2001
ISO9002 2001
MoST Patent 1999
2nd Building 1999
UK Pat CFUBMSIP 1994
US Pat CFUBMSIP 1996
Larger Premises 1992
Closed Field System 1987
1st Prod Equip Sale 1989
Founded 1982
Coating Services (Hartlebury) 1985
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Company Structure
PRODUCTION COATINGS

• 15 Coating Systems
• Automated cleaning, etc.
• Single items to 10,000s/wk

3 PRIMARY DIVISIONS

• 17 Coating Systems
• plus, range of Testing Analysis Equipment

• Design Manufacture
• Coating Test Equipment
• Inc. bespoke designs

RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT
EQUIPMENT BUILDING
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• July 2009 Miba AG took a minority share (24.9)
  of TCL
• full ownership is expected by the end of 2010.
• until then TCL remains a SME!

• The Miba Group is a leading international
  company, of 2600 employees, headquartered in
  Austria.
• Miba is a leading strategic partner of the
  international engine and automotive industry.
• Mibas product portfolio includes sintered
  components, engine bearings, friction and coated
  materials.
• TCL HTC (Mibas Coatings Competence Centre,
  with 40 employees) will collaborate closely.

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Routine Production Coatings

• Hard coatings, e.g. for cutting tools, etc.
• e.g. single nitrides TiN, CrN alloy nitrides
  TiAlN, CrAlN, CrTiAlN, oxides, multilayers, etc.
• Self lubricating, low friction coatings for wear
  resistance
• e.g. carbon based TCL Graphit-iC Dymon-iC and
  MoS2 based TCL MoST
• Plus, coatings for corrosion resistance,
  electrical conductivity, optical properties, etc.
• Coatings typically 1-3µm thick, but
• nm to mm thickness possible for special
  applications

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Coatings a continually expanding range.
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.for many different applications.
Gears, Bearings and other Wear Components
Cutting Tools
Body Jewellery.!
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.including Coating of Powders Grits!
Coating sources project into barrel
Barrel Coater (Load Locked)
Powder exposed to coating flux
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Closed Field Magnetron Sputtering

• Unbalanced field.
• Field lines closed with another magnetron.
• Plasma confined around substrates.
• Electrons loss to chamber walls minimised.
• Increased ionisation.
• Dense, adherent coatings
• Typical energies ?20-30eV, ideal for high quality
  film growth.

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• FCH2 Example - coatings for bipolar plates
• TCLs magnetron sputtering technology is
• industrially qualified
• ideal for the deposition of thin, dense, well
  adhered, high quality coatings on a wide range of
  substrates (including metals and vacuum-stable
  polymers).
• Product-specific results of TCLs previous work
  in this field are obviously confidential to the
  customers concerned!

V Fox presented at - Manufacturing of Bipolar
Plates event, Swerea IVF, Stockholm, 29th January
2008
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• Metallic thin film coatings for bipolar plates
• dense, homogeneous coatings of metals are
  deposited at high rates
• multiple elemental targets (typically 4 or 6)
• alloys and/or graded compositions easily created
• compounds (nitrides, oxides, etc.) can be
  synthesised by reactive deposition
• reactive gas (e.g. N2) introduced during the
  deposition process
• compound (e.g metal nitrogen MeN) formed in
  situ
• automatic feed back control (reactive gas flow
  slaved to metal content of the plasma)

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• Transition metal nitrides (e.g. TiN, CrN etc.)
• hard, dense and relatively inert
• routine coating sources up to 1m (gt2m
  demonstrated!)
• metallic levels of electrical conductivity
• excellent adhesion (Rockwell and scratch adhesion
  results on M42 tool steel substrate shown below)

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• New high rate magnetron deposition of TiN
• 2 magnetrons (12.5kW each)
• 50 mins deposition total thickness 3.36 µm
• deposition rate 4 µm/hr ? 4x higher than from
  conventional magnetrons
• hardness 33 GPa
• scratch adhesion Lcgt60N (i.e. very good)
• So, achieved 4x increase in rate with no obvious
  deterioration in coating quality

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• Graphit-iC coatings
• originally developed for demanding, high load
  bearing, tribological applications
• contains 5 at. chromium
• hardness H 10 to 40 GPa (selectable)
• Youngs modulus E 155 GPa
• low coefficient of friction (lt0.1)
• very low specific wear rate ( 10-17 m3N-1m-1)
• electrically conducting (like graphite) high
  sp2 content
• conventional process, 2µm takes several hrs

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Graphit-iC Coating Process

• 3-steps
• in-situ ion cleaning
• deposition of thin metallic Cr interlayer
• deposition of C-Cr layer

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• Graphit-iC coatings for bipolar plates
• power input can be increased by up to 3x cf TCLs
  conventional Graphit-iC coating process
• deposition rates improved by 2 to 2.7x, say
• here, 2-axis rotation improves coating
  uniformity. In-line systems with magnetrons
  sputtering simultaneously onto both sides of the
  plates could be used in a production process.
• pure carbon or Graphit-iC coatings can be
  deposited at thickness ranging from lt100nm to a
  few microns
• coatings can be (have been) deposited with or
  without Cr adhesion layers
• rates as high as 5 µm/hour are already
  achievable for a stationary substrate (equivalent
  to 85nm per min)

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TCLs Collaborative Projects related to Low
Carbon
HydroGEN TP (08-11)
NECLASS TP (08-10)
Low Cost PVs TP (08-11)
TSB Projects
PROSVACT TP (08-11)
CLUSTERBEAM MNT (06-09)
HYPNOMEM TP (06-09)
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• Technology Programme projects include
• NECLASS improving FC catalyst utilisation
• HydroGEN coatings for electrolysis
• HYPNOMEM thin film membranes for H2 purification
• CLUSTERBEAM/PROSVACT creating nano-clusters for
  model catalysts, etc.
• Low cost Photovoltaics cheap, PV materials by
  thin film, with improved spectral response long
  life
• TCL project leader
• except for HydroGEN NECLASS

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Summary Conclusions

• PVD coatings have multiple potential applications
  in Fuel Cells and the Hydrogen Economy
• Teer Coatings Limited offers relevant,
  industrially-qualified, thin film coatings
• e.g. environmentally resistant, electrically
  conductive thin film coatings for electrode
  plates
• TCL can support partners process and equipment
  needs, from RD through to full production
• TCLs research portfolio includes relevant
  collaborative projects

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Acknowledgements

• The collaborative projects described above have
  benefited from DTI/Technology Strategy Board (MNT
  and Technology Programme) support.
• HYPNOMEM was a joint feasibility project by Univ
  Bhams Metallurgy Materials Department (Rex
  Harris, John Speight, David Book, Vicky Mann,
  Sean Fletcher, Jo Grant) and TCL (Joanne
  Hampshire).
• Other project collaborators are too numerous to
  mention, but are gratefully acknowledged!

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• For more information please contact
• Teer Coatings Limited,
• West Stone House,
• Berry Hill Industrial Estate,
• Droitwich, Worcs, WR9 9AS, UK.
• Tel [phone] Fax [phone]
• www.teercoatings.co.uk

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• Key Contacts
• Paul Teer Managing Director
• Dennis Teer Chairman/Technical Director
• Dr Kevin Cooke Collaborative Research Coord
• Dr Glynn Dyson Sales Marketing Manager
• Wayne Southall Production Coatings Manager
• Dr Joanne Hampshire Special Coatings Manager