Novel coating systems and surface technologies for continuous processing of steel sheet

New challenges on the R & D side result from the ever increasing demands made on the "performance "of surface treated sheets by the manufacturing companies and the customers. Corrosion protection must be improved decisively, especially in view of the fact that the sheets used, for instance, in automotive engineering are becoming thinner more and more. For reasons of processing, environment protection and saving of resources, this cannot be achieved by just increasing the thickness of conventional coating systems. Moreover, additonal functions of the surface coating systems are increasingly in demand like, e. g., scratch resistance, antifingerprint and antidirt characteristics. This clearly shows that the conventional surface treatment processes more and more are reaching boundaries in respect of their capability of further development. A distinct progress is achievable only by the application of novel coating materials, many of which can only be applied with processes of PVD or CVD) or radiation/beam technology, i. e., processes which have been applied hardly or not at all in steel strip surface treatment up to date.