Hard Coatings Market - Forecast(2023 - 2028)

Hard Coatings Market size is forecast to reach $4.9 billion by 2025, after growing at a CAGR of 6.6% during 2020-2025. With the rapid growth of the healthcare industry worldwide, the effectiveness of hard coatings increased customer awareness of the quality and benefits of using hard coatings, and increased research and development activities are likely to fuel the market growth. Owing to the properties such as corrosion-resistant, hardness, and wear, and resistance to electricity and temperature, the hard coatings are used in a wide variety of applications, from industrial coatings, machinery, machines, ball bearings, gear, and pneumatic parts to medical devices and supplies. Hence, due to the rising demand for hard coatings from various end-user applications the hard coatings industry is expected to rise in the forecast period.

The: “Hard Coatings Market Report – Forecast (2020-2025)”, by IndustryARC, covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the hard coatings industry.

By Material: Borides, Carbon-Based, Oxides, Nitrides, Carbides, and Multicomponent Coating

By Technique: Physical Vapor Deposition and Chemical Vapor Deposition

By Application: Decorative Coatings, Cutting Tools, Optics, Pistons, Gears & Bearings, Cams, Cylinders, and Others

By End Use: Transportation Industry, Medial & Dental Industry, Building & Construction Industry, General Manufacturing Industry, Food & Beverage Industry, Sports Industry, and Others

By Geography: North America, South America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East & Africa

Borides are extensively used in the hard coatings market. Borides are perhaps the hardest and heat-resistant compounds. Borides are often used as coatings for materials that have to withstand the harshest conditions because of their incredible toughness – from the inside of the combustion engines to cutting tools for hard metals. Boride coatings show a growing tendency towards amorphous film growth with a growing atomic ratio and, for rare earth hexaborides, with decreasing metal radius of rare earth metal due to the strong directionality of covalent boron-boron bonds. The crystallographic structure of the boride phase strongly influences mechanical and optical properties. Crystalline films based on the transition metal diborides appear to be promising candidates for wear-resistant coatings on cutting tools due to their high hardness combined with good adhesion.

Physical Vapor Deposition held the largest share in the hard coatings market in 2019. Physical vapor deposition is a technique of vaporization coating, where the base material is used to form a thin layer of coating on an object by evaporating and condensing the material. Hard coatings are made of ceramics or metals including oxides, nitrides, and carbides. The electron beam, sputter deposition, evaporative deposition, physical vapor deposition, pulsed laser deposition, and cathodic arc deposition are the techniques used in physical vapor deposition. The PVD techniques are in demand in various end-use industries such as aerospace, automotive, cutting tools, and others owing to its hardness and wear resistance, reduced friction, and improved oxidation resistance.

Cutting Tools held the largest share in the hard coatings market in 2019. The application of hard and lubricating coatings to cutting tools has brought considerable advantages to the metal cutting industry by reducing wear and significantly increasing the useful life of tools. Coatings have gone through many waves of growth due to the industry's growing demands, such as high-speed machining, dry machining, and hard-to-cut alloy machining, such as super alloys and titanium. The output of a machined part of the surface mostly depends on the surface finish obtained from that part. System roughness, residual stress, microstructure, and hardness are several characteristics that must be taken into account in the machined surface. The deposition of a hard coating on cutting tools increases the consistency of the surface finish by preserving the cutting-edge structure of the tool along with the reduced coefficient of friction and reduced temperatures. Coated tools ensure better performance and safety against high mechanical and thermal loads produced by excessive heat during the cutting process compared to uncoated tools, decrease tool-chip friction and interactions, increase cost-efficiency and productivity of machining.

The automotive industry held the largest share in the hard coatings market in 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period 2020-2025. Hard coatings are also used for injection molding, die casting, specific parts or components in automobiles. Its primary benefit is the reduction in manufacturing costs due to the extended life of the equipment and the improved quality of the product. Hard coatings with low friction often lead to energy savings and longer service periods in the automotive and forging industries. The demand for hard coatings will likely rise with an increase in electric vehicle production in the United States. Also, In March 2017, Teijin Limited situated in Tokyo, Japan, announced its development of a new hard-coating technology that can be applied evenly on large or complex-shaped automotive windows made of resin to double the weather resistance of conventional plastics glazing and to achieve the same level of abrasion resistance as glass windows.

Asia Pacific held the largest share with 31% in the hard coatings market. Hard coatings in the Hard coatings in the APAC region are used in many industries, such as buildings and construction, general manufacturing, transportation, etc. In the buildings and construction industry, hard coatings can be used for interior or external decorative purposes. In turn, there is increasing demand for various resistance coatings, for instance scratch, electricity, hardening and wear. According to the International Trade Administration, in China, the construction industry is forecasted to grow at an annual average of 5% in real terms between 2019 and 2023. The Japanese government, together with private companies, is also taking initiatives to introduce modern construction technologies in the building sector using information. Because of the COVID-19 palindrome painting and coating companies, including public sector companies, have scaled down the production. Owing to nationwide shutdown, ongoing construction in various places has been paused and the hard coatings industry henceforth is being impacted. 

One of the major uses of hard-coatings is the optical industry. Lenses and other optical components usually use soft coatings but the use of soft coating becomes obsolete with the development of high-performance techniques, such as hard coatings. The hard coating offers many advantages over soft coatings. Hard coating remains constant for a number of years following continuous application, with soft coated lenses and optical components changing over time. Hard coatings are resistant to stains, durable, anti-refractive and anti-fog, and improve durability. The major countries that contributed to the spectacle lens market revenue included the United States, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, and Canada. In 2018, the revenue from spectacle lenses in the United States was about USD 12,187.75 million, from Germany USD 5104.58 million, from France USD 4393.27 million, from Italy USD 3528.32 million, and United Kingdom was USD 3020.38 million respectively.

General Manufacturing may refer to a range of production, from the assembly of parts to high-tech production, but is mainly used in industrial manufacturing, where the raw materials are converted greatly into finished products. In the general end-use manufacturing industry hard-coatings have been the widest adoption, where high material performance is increasingly required and where large-scale hard-coating has brought enormous benefits. In the machine components, hard coatings are used for wear protection. High functionality, increased lifetime, increased energy efficiency resulting in lower fuel consumption, or reduced lubricant requirements are drivers for the use of hard coatings in the general manufacturing sector.

High deposition temperatures for some Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) processes (often greater than 600 °C) are often unsuitable for structures already fabricated on substrates. Although certain materials may be used to reduce deposition temperatures by the use of plasma enhanced chemical vapor (CVD) or metal-organic precursors. Another downside is that Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) precursors are often dangerous or harmful, and certain precursor by-products can often be harmful. Therefore, additional steps are taken in the handling of the precursors and the reactor exhaust procedure. Precursors to Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) may also be highly toxic (Ni (CO) 4), explosive (B2H6), or corrosive (SiCl4). Additionally, the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) reaction by-products can be dangerous (CO, H2, or HF). Some of those precursors can also be very costly, particularly the metal-organic precursors.

Technology launches, acquisitions, and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in Hard Coatings Market. In 2019, and the market of Hard Coatings Market has been consolidated by the top five players accounting for xx% of the share. Major players in the Hard Coatings Market are OC Oerlikon Corporation AG, IHI Ionbond AG, CemeCon (Germany), IHI Hauzer Techno Coating B.V., Sulzer Ltd., Momentive Performance Materials Inc., Kobelco, Zeiss Group, Ultra Optics, Mbi Coatings, and Dhake Industries Inc. among others.