PVD or Physical Vapor Deposition coating machines are sophisticated industrial tools used to apply thin coatings to a variety of surfaces. The principle involves a physical process, where the coating material is vaporized in a vacuum chamber and then deposited onto a target workpiece. There are two primary categories of these coating systems, namely evaporation and sputtering systems. Evaporation systems utilize thermal energy to transform a solid material into a vapor, while sputtering systems use a plasma created by ionized gas particles to eject atoms from a target material.

The heart of any PVD coating machine is a high-vacuum chamber. Within this chamber, the substrate to be coated is carefully positioned. After achieving a high level of vacuum, the coating process begins. Depending on the system type, the source material is heated or bombarded with ions. This causes the material atoms to travel through the vacuum and condense on the cooler surface of the substrate, forming a thin, uniform, and highly adherent film.