Coating
Protecting Your Investment
A new tool can be expensive to buy. More so if it is custom made or modified for your application. At Tru-Edge, we understand this from the very beginning with our engineering and design team working on your project. At that stage, we optimize design for manufacturing, which also includes in-house PVD coating capabilities.
Having in-house PVD coatings allows us to develop our own coatings that match and exceed most specifications. It also enables us to maximize tool life and re-sharpening capability over time. That’s critical to reducing the total cost of owning the tool over time. We have many proven cases of our coatings reducing total cost of ownership by 30% or more.

Tru-Edge offers a wide selection of PVD coatings that help to extend the life of your tooling. This table provides an overview of the properties of the PVD coatings we use most often.
Tooling Component Coatings
FeinAl®
Superior PLATIT dependability in wear-protection and life extension for fineblanking operations.
Tru-PLEX™
A unique Tru-Edge coating with stoichiometry engineered for high production applications in the forming, punching, bending and deep drawing industries.
Tru-PLEX-CT™
Enhanced AlCrN based multilayer coating with high wear resistance for forming and stamping applications.
CYBER-Coat MP™
A Tru-Edge enhanced TICN-MP coating for the stamping industry and traditional tool and die applications.
TiCN-MP
The Tru-Edge standard TICN coating for forming, stamping, and deep draw applications.
TiN
General-purpose coating for injection molding and guide pins.
Color |
Hardness (HV) |
Thickness [µm] |
Friction (Fretting) Coefficient |
Max. usage temp. [ºC] |
|
Tooling Component Coatings | |||||
FeinAl® |
blue-grey |
3600 |
2 |
0.5 |
900 |
Tru-PLEX™ |
blue-grey |
3600 |
2 |
0.5 |
900 |
Tru-PLEX-CT™ |
blue-grey |
3875 |
2 |
0.5 |
900 |
CYBER-Coat MP™ |
red-copper |
3875 |
2 |
0.25 |
400 |
TiCN-MP |
red-copper |
3875 |
2 |
0.25 |
400 |
TiN |
gold |
2651 |
2 |
0.4 |
600 |
Cutting Tool Coatings
ALL4®
New generation QUAD Coatings4® to improve cutting performance in a variety of materials. This is the one to deploy to improve tool life over old generation AlTiN coatings- this is the Tru-Edge standard for universal applications.
TixCo4®
Fourth generation coating optimized for superhard machining and milling – great choice for hard-to-cut aerospace materials.
TixCo3®
Third generation coating optimized for drilling in wide range of materials, especially hard and abrasive metals. Good choice for dry or near dry drilling.
Tru-PLEX-CT™
Enhanced AlCrN based multilayer coating with high wear resistance against abrasive loads. Good heat and oxidation resistance. Performs well in milling applications. Outstanding for very dry applications.
nACo®
Nanocomposite coating with extremely high nanohardness and heat resistance – excels in high-performance, dry applications – think stainless steel milling.
nACrO
Nanocomposite coating delivering extremely high scratch and heat resistance. Exceptional coating for drilling steel and most drill applications.
TiCN-MP
Tough multipurpose coating for interrupted cutting and milling.
ALTiN
Our old-generation coating used universally in cutting tool applications. For improved performance try the Tru-Edge ALL4® – new generation coating.
ZrN
Monolayer coating for reduction of edge buildup when machining aluminum (<12% Si content). With good resistance to heat, this coating is a great choice to machine titanium alloys.
TiN
General-purpose coating – the old standard. Unique application – apply the Tru-Edge “Flash Coat TiN” to indexable carbide inserts to enable operators to easily identify used and worn edges.
Color |
Hardness (HV) |
Thickness [µm] |
Friction (Fretting) Coefficient |
Max. usage temp. [ºC] |
|
Cutting Tool Coatings | |||||
ALL4® |
dark-grey |
3773 |
2 |
0.45 |
850 |
TixCo4® |
dark-grey |
4487 |
2 |
0.35 |
900 |
TixCo3® |
dark-grey |
4487 |
2 |
0.35 |
900 |
Tru-PLEX-CT™ |
blue-grey |
3600 |
2 |
0.5 |
900 |
nACo® |
blue-grey |
4181 |
2 |
0.4 |
1200 |
NaCrO |
light-grey |
4078 |
1 |
0.45 |
1100 |
TiCN-MP |
red-copper |
3875 |
2 |
0.25 |
400 |
ALTiN |
violet-black |
3263 |
2 |
0.6 |
900 |
ZrN |
white-gold |
2243 |
2 |
0.4 |
550 |
TiN |
gold |
2651 |
2 |
0.4 |
600 |
Coating Done Right
Check out our video below to see the tool coating process from start to finish.