CemeCon Inc. opens headquarters, coating facility

The week after CemeCon Inc. held a ribbon-cutting Jan. 17 to officially open its new 15,000-sq.-ft. headquarters and CVD diamond coating facility, I spoke with Gary Lake, company president, to discuss the expansion and developments in cutting tool coating technology. The opening marks the fourth expansion of production capabilities since the company, which is a subsidiary of Wuerselen, Germany-based CemeCon AG, was founded in 1998 and the third increase in capacity for the CVD diamond process since 2014.

The new building joins the company’s 25,000-sq.-ft. facility in the same Big Flats, N.Y., complex. With CVD diamond production relocated, the larger building will continue to house CemeCon’s equipment for PVD and HiPIMS (High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering) PVD coating technologies.

“We can add 75 percent to our PVD and HiPIMS business because of the part that was vacated by the diamond process,” Lake said, adding that the company is in the process of ordering another HiPIMS machine. “We have enough space that we could easily go up another five or six machines. That’s a big deal.”

He emphasized that the fully commercialized HiPIMS technology is able to deposit coatings that are thicker and harder than conventional PVD coatings but with less stress. Therefore, a wider range of thicknesses better adheres to the substrate and, while harder, the coating exhibits a high level of toughness. “You would normally think it would be more brittle, but it’s not,” Lake said.

The new technology is opening doors throughout the coating industry, according to Lake. “The introduction of HiPIMS technology has changed everything. The properties we’re getting from HiPIMS technology compared to sputtering and DC arc-based technologies are phenomenally better.”

Because of HiPIMS’ high energy, a PVD coating can adhere to a CVD diamond coating, enabling a conductive coating to be deposited on diamond, Lake explained. As a result, CemeCon has introduced CCDiaHiSpeed, a coating material with properties that were previously unattainable.

“That is of interest in some very specific areas relative to automated machining,” he said. “CCDiaHiSpeed is a development product and is really a technology looking for a home.”

With its new headquarters and production facility in operation, Lake predicts continuing growth for CemeCon, which employs 50 people. “We have added people every year for the last 18 years,” he said. “Realistically, I see adding another 25 percent in the next 3 to 5 years. We basically have been growing at that level.”