ADVANCED MANUFACTURING · LIECHTENSTEIN
Oerlikon Balzers
Invisible ceramic films, micrometres thin, that tame wear
01 In brief
In 1946, Professor Max Auwärter founded a small instrument works, the Gerätebauanstalt, in the Liechtenstein village of Balzers, with the backing of Prince Franz Josef II and the Swiss industrialist Emil Georg Bührle. Its products were unglamorous and precise: anti-reflective and sun-protection coatings for spectacle and camera lenses, and thin films for electronics. That modest start in vacuum coating grew into a global business: today Oerlikon Balzers employs around 4,600 people as part of the Swiss technology group OC Oerlikon.
The company's trade is applying BALINIT coatings — ceramic and carbon films between 0.5 and 4 micrometres thick — to cutting tools, dies, moulds and precision components. The films are harder than steel and chemically inert, yet so thin that sharp edges and tight tolerances pass through the process essentially unchanged. Development of PVD coating began at Balzers in 1974, and the BALINIT brand followed in 1978.
02 Why it's interesting
- 01 The company was founded in 1946 in a village of a few thousand people, with the personal backing of Liechtenstein's reigning prince.
- 02 Its coatings are far thinner than a human hair is wide — typically 0.5 to 4 micrometres — and the company's case studies report tool life multiplied severalfold.
- 03 BALINIT A, a titanium nitride coating, is described by the company as the world's first wear-protective PVD coating.
- 04 The customer base spans metal cutting, metal forming, die casting, semiconductors, medical technology, motorsport and aerospace.
03 How it works
PVD — physical vapour deposition — grows a ceramic skin on a metal part: metal is vaporised in a vacuum and recondenses, as a chemical compound, on the workpiece.
In an industrial PVD chamber the air is pumped out, and the parts are clamped on rotating holders so that every surface faces the vapour stream in turn. A target made of the coating metal — titanium, chromium or aluminium, say — is vaporised, by an electric arc or by sputtering, and the metal vapour meets a reactive gas such as nitrogen. Where vapour, gas and surface meet, a nitride ceramic forms atom by atom on the part. Because the film grows so slowly, typical production thicknesses sit between 0.5 and 4 micrometres, and sharp cutting edges, textured or mirror finishes and precise tolerances are in most cases unaltered by the process.
Which ceramic depends on the job. Titanium nitride, the original BALINIT A, is the general-purpose classic; aluminium- and chromium-based nitrides such as TiAlN, AlTiN and AlCrN take the heat of milling, drilling and turning; chromium nitride pairs hardness with corrosion resistance; and diamond-like carbon coatings reduce friction where parts slide against each other. A related plasma-based process, PACVD, is used for applications such as plastic injection moulding.
Around the technology sits a service business. Most customers send tools and components to Balzers coating centres for batch coating; larger manufacturers can instead operate Balzers coating equipment in their own plants, supported by the company's process know-how and digital services. The historic site in Balzers remains the group's centre, alongside a worldwide network of coating centres.
| Founded | 1946, Balzers, Liechtenstein |
|---|---|
| PVD development | Started at Balzers in 1974 |
| BALINIT brand | Launched 1978, beginning with titanium nitride |
| Coating thickness | Typically 0.5–4 µm in mass production |
| Employees | Around 4,600 |
Company history and the employee figure from Oerlikon Balzers' official pages; coating thickness from the official BALINIT technical description; group changes from OC Oerlikon's 2025 full-year results.
04 The organisation behind it
Oerlikon Balzers Coating AG is headquartered in Balzers, Liechtenstein, and is part of OC Oerlikon, the Swiss technology group. In February 2026 the group completed the divestment of its Barmag polymer-processing business to the Rieter Group, closing its transformation into a pure play in surface technologies and advanced materials, with Balzers at the centre of the coating business. The Balzers site combines the company's historical roots with coating development and production.
05 In the real world
The economics are quiet but large. Coated tools cut faster and last longer, and the company's published case studies range from fourfold tool life in metalworking to 130 per cent longer service life in composite drilling and faster dental prosthetics. A separate strand of work replaces electroplated hard chrome with PVD alternatives — framed by the company as an environmental as well as a technical argument. Most end users never learn the name Balzers; they simply notice that the drill in the machine shop outlived its predecessor.
06 Can you visit?
No. The Balzers site is a working industrial plant and development centre without a public visitor programme. The company's website, including its coating guide, is the practical way in.
- Official site
- oerlikon.com