Commercial applications and equipment for ion beam surface treatment

The capability to reliably produce rapidly pulsed, intense ion beams with beam geometry suitable for commercial surface treatment applications has remained elusive, in spite of the effort of many researchers. Work at Quantum Manufacturing Technologies, Inc. (QMT) since 1996 has resulted in commercial equipment that can produce rapidly pulsed, intense ion beams, and in commercial applications for these beams. QMT's QM1 facility uses magnetic switching to achieve pulse compression from a 60 Hz wall plug power to 150 ns pulses with over 60% electrical efficiency. A magnetically-confined anode plasma (MAP) ion beam system is used to convert this electrical energy into a 3 billion watt beam of ions. This system has now produced a half million ion beam pulses with typical beam parameters of 0.5 kJ/pulse of ions, ion energy of 400 keV, pulse length of 150 ns, and pulse repetition rates of up to 5 pulses per second. Beams of either hydrogen or nitrogen ions are typically produced. This system functions reliably in automated commercial operation, incorporating, real time fault detection and synchronization with automated part handling. Confirmed applications for this capability include smoothing of metal surfaces by rapid melt and resolidification, production of harder, more wear resistant surfaces for tools and dies, hardening of polymer surfaces by crosslinking, and stripping coatings from carbide tools. The new capabilities offered by ion beam surface treatment have clear applications in many markets, including treatment of medical parts, tools, and dies.