HARD Technologies is a prime example of an advanced manufacturing company that has carved out a unique niche.
Based in Launching Place in Victoria, HARD Technologies is a metallurgical based research and development company specialising in the treatment of metal surfaces. Through its revolutionary Fluidised Bed Reactor Surface Modification Technology, the tools and metal parts surfaces are treated and improved. While its competitors coat the tool’s surface, HARD makes the change more durable by transforming the atomic structure.
A die casting tool for example that looks after the gear box housing of a car could be used only about 100,000 times before it wears out and has to be discarded. These would cost anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 to replace.
But using HARD’s patented technology, the tool’s life span is effectively doubled.
Similarly, the extrusion tool for aluminium window frames has a limited life span. It can extrude only so many tonnes of aluminium. These tools cost approximately $5,000-$20,000 to replace. HARD’s bed reactor technology can give these tools three times the life.
The applications therefore can save manufacturers millions of dollars a year in costs. HARD is taking orders for parts to be trialled. After that it is looking to sell the equipment and licensing its technology.
Potentially, the technology can be used by a wide range of industries, including automotive, aerospace, particularly for landing gear, metal works and mining with a particular focus on drill lots. There is even scope for Hard Technology to work with the automotive industry in developing fuel efficient cars. Applied to the piston ring of a car, it can improve performance and use less energy.
The result: less fuel and a car that lasts longer. Indeed, much of HARD’s work can be applied to green technology now becoming a boom industry. This could translate to significant new products developed, particularly in the area of sustainability.
In the oil gas and mining industries, a decrease in wear will produce substantial savings for the manufacturing sector. The aluminium extrusion industry could save millions of dollars a year and the tooling industry, particularly in die casting cold forming and hot forging, will have improved performance. That will make Australian industry more effective in the global market.
The technology, developed originally by Ray Reynoldson, is radically different from the customary way of treating tools. Around the world, HARD Technology’s competitors coat the tool’s surface with chromium nitride which ultimately peels off.
There is no coating with the HARD Technology treatment. It lasts longer, saves money and that is the company’s competitive advantage. Instead of being coated with chromium nitride, the metal is heated to about 400 to 600 degrees centigrade. Because all metals have a crystal like structure, the atoms can be diffused, interacting with gas and chromium particles in a fluidised bed, and hardened in the heat. That makes the surface more resistant to corrosion and wear and tear. In short, the atoms are being diffused into the surface so that they will not come apart. The result: a tool that last longer and saves manufacturers millions of dollars.
As an advanced manufacturer, HARD Technologies works extensively with Deakin University and the Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing (VCAMM). Reynoldson, who had written a book on the technology, started out with a Commercial Ready grant from Austrade.
In a clever move, he sponsored PhD research at Deakin to develop the technology. Indeed, Hard’s principal researcher comes out of Deakin.
The Advanced Manufacturing Co-operative Research Centre (AMCRC) helps fund the research which is constantly developing new processes for new markets.
HARD has just developed a revolutionary new surface treatment (DST-Cr) now being installed at a new plant in Altona, Victoria. A consortium of HARD, -UST Technologies, Deakin University, Capral and VCAMM have received a VSA Investment Fund grant from the Victorian government to install the equipment.
DST-Cr is superior to existing technology in improving surface wear and corrosive resistance of ferrous metals. Using this technology, the metal tools can be processed at relatively low temperatures to ensure the core hardness is retained, extending the life of the product many more times than can be achieved through existing surface treatments and coatings done through hard chrome plating, nitriding, PVD and CVD Titanium and Chromium Nitride. It is envisaged this will have a wide range of applications, from tools and dies to parts such as gears and crankshafts.
More to the point, Reynoldson sees the state of the art plant at Altona as a showcase for global manufacturers and tool makers.
At the moment, HARD has licensed one company in Michigan to use its technology but Reynoldson believes many will using the technology from right around the world. “Ninety per cent of our market will be overseas. We anticipate that we will bring people in from overseas to have a look at it and it is very much state of the art with all its computer equipment, ’’Reynoldson says. “Once people see it and what it does and how it works, it will make it easier to license people from overseas to use it.
Having developed a unique niche product that no competitor is anywhere near producing, HARD has positioned itself as a global player for manufacturers, tool makers and different industries around the world.
