Tecvac vacuum systems engineering and applications development

Tecvac provides complete vacuum processing solutions.
The engineering and research team advises on product application, designs complete processes for all types of vacuum coating, and builds vacuum processing plant for universities, research institutions and businesses worldwide. Tecvac has supplied more than 40 advanced PVD and plasma processing machines used for advanced medical research projects.

These machines extend from commercial polymer film coating units, to specialist processors for pharmaceutical businesses, and complex research machines with multiple electron beam configurations that allow complex PVD coatings to be developed with multiple metallic, metalloid and ceramic components combined in flexible formulations.

Tevcac's systems management processes can provide automatic, verifiable logging and tracking of every aspect of treatment, including designated operator interaction, if required. Systems track process parameters and operator actions on a batch by batch basis so ensuring full traceability, and meet cGMP standards.

Substantial research facility
Tecvac maintains a substantial application research team that provides technical assistance to customers, maintains close links with leading research institutions, and participates in UK and European collaborative programmes with project partners in UK, Germany, Italy, Denmark, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Russia, USA, Czechoslovakia & Brazil.

Collaborative research programmes
These programmes have included:
Brite (EU) RI.1B.0151C(H) Duplex coatings and plasma nitride on Titanium alloys.
Euram(EU) MA1E -0079, Ion implantation of Ti alloys for surgical prostheses.
BP + Hull University - Development and characterisation of multi-layer coatings.
Hull University PhD. EPSRC - Ion Implantation of titanium alloys.
IAC Harwell (DTI) - Ion assisted coatings including Diamond-Like-Carbon.

Tecvac is also currently participating in the Smart Hip project - Smart bioactive nano-composite coatings for enhanced hip prostheses.

£500,000 EPSRC project at the University of Sheffield
Tecvac Ltd has designed and built a unique, world class surface engineering research machine for The University of Sheffield as part of a £500,000 EPSRC project.

Specifically designed for the Research Centre in Surface Engineering, led by Professor Allan Matthews (in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering) the new Tecvac IP70 machine uniquely combines two different Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) coating technologies in a single production scale vacuum chamber.

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), it will be used both for fundamental research and for near-market applications in surface engineering, covering a range of ceramics, nano composite and glassy-metal plasma-based coatings - combined with a duplex substrate diffusion pre-treatment capability.
This will open up routes to new thin film and nano-scale processes which can support innovative medical and life science applications including tissue engineering.
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Project BERTI; (Biomedical implant with Exceptional Resistance to Tribo-bio-corrosion and with Inherent antimicrobial properties) is expected to lead to new designs of knee and hip implants and substantially reduce the number of costly revision surgeries for hip and knee replacement patients. Partners in the project include Corin Plc, Tecvac Ltd, Imperial College, University of London, Charing Cross Hospitals, Queen Mary College, University of London and the University of Sheffield.
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