US-12624441-B2 - Vacuum deposition facility and method for coating a substrate

Abstract

A vacuum deposition facility for continuously depositing, on a running substrate, coatings formed from at least one metal inside a Vacuum deposition facility including a vacuum chamber, a coated substrate coated with at least one metal on both sides of the substrate and a coated metallic substrate.

Inventors

• Eric Silberberg
• Thiago RABELO NUNES CAMPOS
• NEGAR GILANI

Assignees

• ARCELORMITTAL

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20240812

Priority Date

20180613

Claims (14)

1. 1 . A vacuum deposition facility for continuously depositing, on a running substrate, coatings formed the at least one metal, the facility comprising: a vacuum chamber, the substrate capable of running along a given path through the vacuum chamber, wherein the vacuum chamber further comprises: at least two vapor ejectors facing each other and positioned respectively with the angles α and α′ between the respective vapor ejector and the axis perpendicular to the running direction of the substrate, the axis being in the plane of the substrate, α and α′ both satisfying the following equation: α = arc ⁢ cos ⁡ ( Ws - ( D ⁢ 1 + D ⁢ 2 ) We ) ⁢ with ⁢ 0 ⁢ ° < α < 82 ⁢ ° , α ′ = arc ⁢ cos ⁡ ( Ws - ( D ⁢ 1 + D ⁢ 2 ) We ) ⁢ with ⁢ 0 ⁢ ° < α ′ < 82 ⁢ ° , D 1 and D 2 being the distance between the ejectors and each substrate edge along the axis, W s being the substrate width, the vapor ejectors having an elongated shape and including a slot defined by the slot width We, the vapor ejectors having a same rotation axis.
2. 2 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 1 wherein the distance between the ejector and the substrate edges D 1 and D 2 are above Omm so ejector edges do not go beyond the substrate edges.
3. 3 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 1 wherein D 1 and D 2 are equal to 0 mm so the substrate edges are in a same plane as ejector edges.
4. 4 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 1 wherein D 1 and D 2 are below 0 mm so ejector edges extend beyond the substrate edges.
5. 5 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 1 wherein the substrate width Ws is maximum of 2200 mm.
6. 6 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 1 wherein Ws is minimum of 200 mm.
7. 7 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 1 wherein α′ is such that α-α′ <10° in absolute terms.
8. 8 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 7 wherein α is between 0 and 60° in absolute terms.
9. 9 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 8 wherein α is between 10 and 50° in absolute terms.
10. 10 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 9 wherein α is between 20 and 35° in absolute terms.
11. 11 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 1 wherein the ejectors have a rectangular shape or a trapezoidal shape.
12. 12 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 1 wherein D 1 is identical to D 2 .
13. 13 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 1 wherein the vacuum chamber further comprises a central casing surrounding the substrate, the central casing including a substrate entry and a substrate exit located on two opposite sides of the central casing and the at the least two vapor ejectors.
14. 14 . The vacuum deposition facility as recited in claim 13 wherein inner walls of the central casing are suited to be heated at a temperature above a condensation temperature of the metal or metal alloy vapors.

Description

This is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/973,114, filed on Dec. 8, 2020, published as US 2021/0238735 A1, which is a National Stage Entry of PCT/IB2019/053341, filed on Apr. 23, 2019, which claims priority to PCT/IB2018/054302, filed Jun. 13, 2018. All of the above are hereby incorporated by reference herein. The present invention relates to vacuum deposition facility for continuously depositing, on a substrate, coatings formed from metal or metal alloys. The present invention also relates to a metallic coated substrate. BACKGROUND Various processes for depositing metal coatings, eventually composed of alloys, on a substrate, such as a steel strip, are known. Among these, mention may be made of hot-dip coating, electrodeposition and also the various vacuum deposition processes, such as vacuum evaporation and magnetron sputtering. It is known from WO97/47782 a method for the continuous coating of a steel substrate in which a metallic vapor spray, propelled at a speed greater than 500 m/s, comes in contact with the substrate. The deposition method is called jet vapor deposition. EP2940191 discloses a method of manufacturing a Zn—Mg alloy-plated steel sheet, comprising: preparing a base steel sheet; and forming a Zn—Mg plating layer by evaporating a Zn—Mg alloy source to be deposited on a surface of the base steel sheet, wherein an Mg content of the Zn—Mg plating layer is 8 wt % or less (but above 0 wt %) and a temperature of the base steel sheet before and after the Zn—Mg plating layer is deposited thereon is 60° C. or lower. In this patent application, it is mentioned that in order to adjust temperature of the base steel sheet, a method of cooling the base steel sheet before and after a deposition process is performed, by installing cooling rolls. When it comes to cooling devices, in order to obtain good cooling efficiency in a vacuum state, a plurality of cooling rolls may be installed, rather than a single cooling roll, to significantly increase an interface thereof. In particular, a rise in the temperature of the steel sheet may be significant after a coating process due to coating condensation enthalpy. Thus, after the coating process, increasing cooling efficiency and managing the temperature of the cooling rolls to be relatively low by increasing the number or size of the cooling rolls may be desirable. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Nevertheless, by using several cooling rolls, there is a risk that the temperature of the base steel sheet is not homogenous enough leading to flatness issues due to cooling heterogeneity. Indeed, when the metallic vapor is condensed on the substrate, heat energy is released leading to the elastic deformation of the substrate. The elastic deformation can lead to flatness issues after the cooling rolls since the contact pressure between the coated metallic substrate and the cooling rolls is not homogenous. Consequently, there is a risk that the plurality of cooling rolls used in EP2940191 deforms the steel since the interface between the coated steel sheet and the cooling rolls has significantly increased. In the case where the coating is deposited on both sides of a metallic substrate, it is also important to control the temperature of the metallic substrate. Indeed, when the flatness of the coated metallic substrate is improved, the quality of the coated metallic substrate increases including, for example, the homogeneity of its mechanical properties, the surface aspect of the coating. It is an object of the present invention to provide an optimized method for depositing coatings on both sides of a running substrate so that the flatness of the coated metallic substrate is highly improved. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for continuously depositing, on a running substrate (S), coatings formed from at least one metal inside a Vacuum deposition facility (1) comprising a vacuum chamber (2), wherein the method comprises: A step in which in the said vacuum chamber, a metallic vapor is ejected through at least two vapor ejectors (3, 3′), towards both sides of the running substrate and a layer of at least one metal is formed on each side by condensation of ejected vapors, the at least two vapor ejectors facing each other being positioned respectively with an angle α and α′, being between the vapor ejector and the axis (A) perpendicular to the running direction of the substrate, the axis being in the plane of the substrate, α and α′ both satisfying the following equations: α=arc⁢cos⁡(Ws-(D⁢1+D⁢2)We)⁢ with⁢ 0⁢°<α<82⁢°⁢ and⁢ α′=arc⁢cos⁡(Ws-(D⁢1+D⁢2)We)⁢ with⁢ 0⁢°<α′<82⁢°, D1 and D2 being the distance between ejectors and each substrate edge along the axis (A), Ws being the substrate width, said vapor ejectors having an elongated shape and comprising a slot and being defined by a slot width We, said vapor ejectors having the same rotation axis. The invention also covers a coated substrate. The invention also covers a vacuum facility