Surface modification using ceramic coatings has achieved an important place in the industrial environment during the past twenty years. BCC Research reveals in its new report that high-performance ceramic coatings constitute a mature but still expanding industry with a broad list of current and potential applications, continuously emerging coating techniques and a growing list of material compositions.
Ceramic coatings constitute a large family of materials with quite diverse compositions and properties. They include compositions based on alumina, alumina-magnesia, chromia, hafnia, silica, silicon carbide, titania and zirconia. Ceramic coatings generally are applied to metal or metallic alloy components, as well as to ceramic components.
High-performance ceramic coatings are a special class of ceramics because of their form and the preparation techniques required. However, their uses are diverse, and they exploit a wide range of unique and desirable properties of various bulk ceramics. Ceramic coatings are generally used for wear- (or erosion-), corrosion- and high temperature-resistant applications. All ceramic coatings deliver some level of performance in each of the three major areas listed above.
The North American market for high-performance ceramic coatings totaled nearly $1.3 billion in 2015 and should reach $1.9 billion in 2020, reflecting a five-year compound annual growth rate of 7.8%. Thermal spray coatings, the fastest growing segment with a five-year CAGR of 8.6%, should grow from $695.4 million in 2015 to $1 billion in 2020. Physical vapor deposition (PVD) as a segment should grow from $260.4 million in 2015 to $377.1 million in 2020, with a five-year CAGR of 7.7%.
Thermal spray coatings, which captured 53.1% of the 2014 market, should increase its market share dominance to 55.2% by 2020. Physical vapor deposition (PVD) accounted for the second-largest share of the market (19.9%), which could decrease slightly to 19.8% by 2020. Meanwhile, the share of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is projected to decrease to 16.2% from 19.4% during the same period. Other coating technologies (e.g., spraying/dipping, sol-gel and micro-oxidation techniques) are predicted to gain in market share, to 8.8% in 2020 from 7.6% in 2014.
“The promise of performance improvement is the main force driving the continued development and commercialization of high-performance ceramic coatings,” says BCC Research analyst Andrew McWilliams. “These coatings are typically applied to cast iron, steel, super alloys, titanium alloys, tungsten carbides, carbon/carbon composites and even ceramics. Use of ceramic coatings enables metals to be used for several applications for which they would otherwise be unsuitable.”