CVMR®’s Metal Products
CVMR®'s processes and technologies have many applications that serve a variety of industries, in addition to the metal refining industry. By varying the process parameters at the end of the refining, a wide range of metal forms are created, such as:
• The production of pure metal powders and metal foams, used for batteries, catalysts, capacitors, or for alloys, which require ultra-pure metals.
• Production of graphene and graphite for use in batteries, net shapes, desalination plants, construction materials and other industrial applications
• The application of pure metal coatings on a wide range of substrates, including non-metallic materials such as powders, fibres, resins, composites, polymers, ceramics, and metallic coatings inside porous substrates.
• The production of solid metal net shapes and mould inserts directly on the master with perfect replication. These tool inserts require no polishing.
• The manufacture of seamless net shapes, such as uniformly deformable cans (“HIP cans”) used for isostatic pressing.
• The production of nickel moulds made for the manufacture of plastic light-wave guides, for hand-held computer touch screens. These use etched silicon wafers as the master forms.
• The manufacture of thin nickel parts as fuel cell focusing devices for NASA’s deep space program.
CVMR®’s metallic vapour infiltrates into cavities and pores of various substrates to coat their inner surface completely. This can provide strength, conductivity, mass and protective layers for the substrates.
The CVMR® process can decompose the metalorganicgases in layers of metals with different characteristics, simply by varying the gas compositions, in order to produce layered metals, or alloys, with varying metal mixes as part of one continuous piece. For example, hardness, ductility, and the percentages of various metals used in an alloy, can be varied from one end of the metal alloy, to the other.
The growth of the pure metals by thermal decomposition ensures that every feature of a master form is replicated perfectly atom by atom. The CVMR® process is, therefore, excellent for optical parts by reproducing mirror finishes exactly. For example, perfect replicas of bank-note masters reproduced in the nickel printing plates made for the U.S. Treasury Department, Bureau of Engraving & Printing. (The first time in the history of U.S. Treasury Department dollar plates were made outside the USA).
Telecommunication devices are moulded precisely with the assistance of mould tool inserts made by the CVMR® process. This enables plastic parts manufacturers to produce accurate parts with significantly high tolerances.
In the bio-technology industry, medical instruments such as tipping tools, are made with CVMR® mould inserts.
The CVMR® process applies well to the metal coating of a wide range of materials. Any substrate can be metal-coated by this gaseous process, provided that the material is stable at a temperature of 175°C and does not off-gas. This enables CVMR® to apply coatings to metal and non-metal powders, such as ceramics, polyamide, silicon, resins, fibres, carbon whiskers and porous materials.
CVMR®’s processes produce a range of metal powders in varied forms and morphologies. They can also produce solid metals with a nano-crystal structure and can manufacture metal foams and ultra-pure powders as dense products, or as filamentary products, to meet various specifications.
CVMR®’s sister company, CVD Manufacturing Inc. (“CVDM”), designs and manufactures specialized CVMR® equipment and manufactures inserts for the machine tool industry, as well as metal coatings and net shapes, as described above. Link to: www.cvdm.ca
