Facing today’s demands on components in general industry, aerospace, automotive or medical industry, lightweight and a tailored surface might be the right answer to reduce waste in terms of wear or frictional energy losses. PEO, plasma-electrolytical oxidation, remains as an unknown or at least niche surface technology, giving lightweight metals a hard and robust protection shell. Expiring an increasing interest in the research society in the last decade, it is supposed to be a promising candidate for increasing lightweight potential but being not ready for wide industrial applications by being too expensive or applicable only on small parts or series. The Ultraceramic® PEO surfaces are on the market for over 20 years, applied under different harsh conditions. The Ultraceramic® -surfaces can withstand high loading by vibrations giving lightweight alloys like Aluminum or Magnesium a very high corrosion and wear protection.

Combining the high wear resistance of the PEO surfaces with polymers like doped PEEK, we can achieve low friction and wear in tribological applications without additional lubricants, leading to sustainable systems. Further improvement can be done using laser radiation for patterning and selective laser sintering of the polymer top coating.

We will show application possibilities and different fields of our surface modification used industrial in tribological, corrosive and high temperature applications, whereas for instance maintenance-free power units could be realized.

Being convinced that facing the incessantly growing demands on sustainability, efficiently and endurance, which are made on components in automotive, aerospace and machinery applications, is only possible by intelligent lightweight, including multi-material mix, accompanied by the right solutions for the surfaces, we enhance our technologies.