Surface treatment protects metal components and machine parts

After all, this extends the service life and provides significant cost savings. Bel-Technologies, or Bel-Tec for short, is one of the most specialized companies in Europe in the field of high-tech metal surface treatment for industry. Its versatile program includes diffusion techniques and hardening processes, coatings and heat treatments, but also maintenance and repair.

Bel-Technologie originated in 1980 as a subsidiary of the Metallisierwerk P. Schreiber GmbH, but has been an independent entity since 1990, specializing in high-tech metal surface treatments. "We want to give customers a complete service and provide both fabrication and treatment of metal components and machine parts. Therefore, in cooperation with a group of partner companies, we supply a wide range of unique and exclusive products," says Managing Director Peter van Belle. "Thanks to our many years of experience, the continuous drive for innovation and the support of research centers and laboratories, we can properly address wear and corrosion problems and thus optimize the quality of the end products. Customers can come to us for thermal diffusion and curing, galvanic and electrolytic coatings, HVOF and ceramic coatings, and PVD-CVD coatings. To meet the increasing demand from home and abroad, we have invested heavily in our machinery in recent years. For example, we commissioned three new chamber furnaces for treating stainless steel products up to 9 m long. This allows us, for example, to treat pipelines and guide strips without any problems and harden up to 2,200 HV via the chromium diffusion process. Furthermore, we pay great attention to the automation of our processes."

Diffusion techniques, heat treatments and coatings

Bel-Tec is known, among other things, for its specialization in diffusion techniques. Thus, it can be used for borizing and nickel diffusion and for hardening of stainless steel, avoiding cold welding and wear. For high temperature applications, the company offers the technique of alumizing and for ceramic hardness up to 3,000 HV0.025 to improve wear resistance, one chooses vanadizing. By inchromizing workpieces hard or soft, the specialist optimizes corrosion resistance and wear resistance at high temperatures. "Inchromizing does not involve applying a coating, but diffusing chromium into the material itself. This diffusion process is completely chromium VI free, which makes it ideal for the pharma, food and feed sectors," explains the business manager. "In addition to diffusion techniques, we offer all heat treatments, such as vacuum hardening, oil hardening, flame hardening, finishing, nitriding, as well as all annealing treatments. Precious engineering components can acquire unique combinations of properties by combining diffusion techniques and heat treatments. This increases both the performance and lifetime of the components and saves costs." Bel-Tec is the only company in Europe specialized in the application of the patented TFE-LOK® coating, these are SLIDE,- SCREENING TEFLON®-COATINGS based on galvanic and electrolytic hard coatings such as Hard Chrome, Chemical-Nickel and, PE Hard-Anodization for Aluminum parts. With these we achieve TEFLON® coatings, with hardnesses from 480 to 1,100 HV (Vickers Hardness). These are wear-resistant and have the same properties as e.g. Hard Chrome with a low coefficient of friction. In addition, HVOF and ceramic coatings and PVC-CVD layers are among the options. They optimize wear resistance and corrosion resistance of components and machine parts and some can also prevent sticking. 

Metallurgical laboratory

There is more, however, as Bel-Tec has a certified metallographic laboratory, which also performs damage surveys and materials analysis for other companies. "In our modern metallographic laboratory, we offer a resembling of techniques, including measurement of the layer thickness of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, stereomicroscopy, damage research, product and thread measurement, determination of core and surface hardness, measurement of surface roughness and material structure research. Thus, we put our know-how and experience of more than forty years even more at the service of customers. We provide a comprehensive report - also available digitally - with the necessary visual material," van Belle concludes. "In addition to manufacturing and treating new components, we are also responsible for repairing used and worn elements with laser cladding, for example. With this welding technique, a laser is used to melt a thin layer of the product in order to then apply metal powder to it and fuse it."