Exciting new equipment installed that combines both ALD and PVD - first for the UK

Thanks to funding from the Henry Royce Institute, the Royce at Cranfield have been able to install an exciting new piece of equipment – the first in the UK!

The Swiss Cluster SC-1 uniquely combines atomic layer deposition (ALD) and physical vapour deposition (PVD) to create coatings with superior performance for wear, hydrogen permeation, corrosion protection and many others.

Thanks to ALD, very conformal coatings can be deposited, covering the entirety of a component including those with complicated geometries or narrow channels. The combination of ALD with PVD further gives the user the ability to engineer their own coatings with hundreds of multi-layers within as low as 1 micrometre. 

For more information on this equipment and its unique capabilities, a video of Dr Carlos Guerra, the co-founder and CEO of Swiss Cluster, talking to us about the exciting potential it has to offer, is available here.

The SC-1 will be available for use by SMEs, academics and students, subsidised through our Royce Access Scheme. If you have something you would like coated, have an idea for a project or would like more information – please get in contact at royce@cranfield.ac.uk

From L to R: Dr Carlos Guerra, Dr Christopher Shaw and Cameron Davis installing the new SC-1 machine from Swiss Cluster.