Thickfilm®

Apply a coating of our patented Thickfilm® to your products and see an immediate reduction in friction and a greatly lowered chance of siezing. No matter what your equipment is, if it's metal-on-metal, we simply make it work better.

What is Thickfilm®?

Our patented Thickfilm® coating process applies an ion metallizing treatment to a variety of surfaces and substrates in a high vacuum environment. Flexbrite’s method allows us to build a denser, more uniform, more adhesive and thicker than typical metal layer than other methods which adds to coating life. What makes Thickfilm® distinctive is its ability to apply many different types of metal combinations that will adhere to a substrate.

Thickfilm's® Advantage

Unlike competing processes, Thickfilm® creates an atomic bond during the metallizing treatment that implants 3-5 atoms deep into the substrate surface. This allows the coating to flex and move with the substrate under extreme temperatures and pressures without separation.

Metallizing treatments can vary in thickness and range from 1000-25,000+ Angstroms (25,000 Angstroms = 0.01 mil or 0.0025 millimeter). We find that up to 25,000 Angstroms per side to be a nominal thickness; therefore, special machining tolerances for coatings are not necessary. Each metallizing treatment follows the profile of the coated area with no excessive build-up around the corners, edges, peaks or fillet areas.

The following diagrams visually explain the difference between typical coatings and Thickfilm® coatings:

Typical coating showing sharp interface between the substrate and the coating

Thickfilm® coating showing graded interface between the substrate and the coating