Customer Support

nanoWatt has decades of experience in the vacuum and coating world. We deploy this knowledge while supporting you with all aspects of your low-pressure plasma machines, independent of the manufacturer of your machine. This support includes troubleshooting, preventive maintenance or supply of spare parts.

Remote

nanoWatt machines come standardly installed with a remote connection platform. This allows us to determine the root cause of a problem remotely and lets us efficiently intervene, troubleshoot, and resolve possible issues. Working this way allows us to keep the intervention cost low and to help instantly.

Field

On third party machines or in case remote support is not possible, we are fully equipped to do a technical service intervention on-site, worldwide. This intervention can be related to any aspect of the machine, be it vacuum or plasma related. We are able to recalibrate most components and troubleshoot process problems when the quality of the process is dropping or when the process needs to be developed towards new materials.

Spare Parts and Maintenance

nanoWatt also offers an extensive range of spare parts for low-pressure plasma machines. We compose tailored spare parts sets for predictive maintenance or as critical spare parts stock. Logically, we also offer specific predictive maintenance plans, executed by our trained staff, including the possibility to train your internal maintenance team to execute certain maintenance tasks independently. A tailormade predictive maintenance plan and a critical parts stock is crucial in beating unexpected downtimes.

Refurbishment

Low-pressure plasma machines are well known for their long service life-expectancy. The hardware of some machines will last forever and it would be a shame to throw everything away when only some parts are getting obsolete or not able to support the latest technologies.

In close consultation with the customer, we evaluate the possible scenarios and work out a plan to upgrade/refurbish the machine where needed. This can go from reprogramming the control logic of the machine or implementing a new HMI to completely replacing the electrical cabinet, controls and sensors.

Our high degree of experience makes us familiar with most of the used components, terms, needs, and risks related to your vacuum (coating) machine. This speeds up the process of understanding your needs and outlining the project in order to meet those needs. All our knowledge is in-house, this means we will be able to support on all levels needed to successfully finish the project and make tailormade customizations where needed.

Nanowatt supports the two most used plc program suites to write tailored control software. These are Allen Bradley (Studio 5000) and Siemens (Tia Portal). We also support Jetter but don’t create any new programs with it. If a certain part is obsolete, beyond repair or is working with a no longer supported communication bus, we replace it by a similar part and integrate it seamlessly into your machine, assuring all previous functionalities . We have an extensive supplier network assisting in defining the correct component.

The times of stand-alone machines, doing just their own thing, are over. Today’s machines need to be interconnected with other hardware or platforms. Quality reporting, sending commands from the WMS or updates to or from an ERP or MES system, the information exchange can go many ways. We make machines Industry 4.0-ready by using standardized backbones (OPC based). We are specialized in integrating systems in any company-specific environment, this way making your system interconnected and future proof.

Sampling Job coating

Nanowatt’s lab is currently equipped with 2 lab plasma treatment systems. Next to development of new plasma treatment processes and validation of new hardware concepts, these systems are used to provide customers with treated/coated samples, aiming to meet the required functionalities on the customer’s material. These lab systems are also used for job coating of smaller series. This service can be of specific interest when the edition size of a product is too small to invest in a machine.

One system is a roll-to-roll system that has a modular build, allowing us to use different technologies and assure the optimal treatment for your product, and at the same time allowing easy integration of new process modules for developing the technology of the future. It can treat sample rolls of 600mm width and 30cm diameter.

Our second machine is a component coater/activation machine, allowing treatment of parts placed in a tray. This machine is equipped with additional high vacuum components to support our R&D towards the next generation of plasma coatings.

Joined development & sampling

We are open to join development projects, be it as an exclusive partner with an industrial player in a specific field or as a partner in a wider development project (Horizon Europe).