PVD Coated Brass Weather Instruments: An Overview

What is a PVD coating and why is it used to coat Maximum’s brass instruments? 

PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) is an environmentally friendly vacuum coating process with no hazardous byproducts, resulting in a brilliant decorative finish with excellent wear and corrosion resistance. 

The coating process used for all PVD cased Maximum weather instruments starts with a solid brass, chrome plated case. The plated case is placed into a tightly sealed vacuum chamber and a titanium coating is applied, at a molecular level, through the vapor deposition process. When finished, the cases are virtually impervious to corrosion for the life of the instrument. 

What are the advantages of PVD coatings?

Other advantages to PVD instrument cases are the resistance to wear and abrasions, as well as protection from dust and air particulates. When dust accumulates on the surface of our standard, lacquered brass case, it can slowly break down the lacquer and over time, this can cause the exposed solid brass case to tarnish. Once tarnish has set in, Maximum can offer a replacement case, but we cannot restore the tarnished case to its original appearance. 

Many of our instrument owners find PVD treated instruments advantageous in their vacation homes where they do not live year-round and cannot prevent dust from settling on the tops of the instruments. The eventual tarnishing that could occur over 4-5 months due to the solid brass case being exposed to the elements is a leading factor in the decision to upgrade to PVD coated instrument cases that will not tarnish even if left unprotected for a prolonged period of time.     

Be sure to visit www.maximum-inc.com to check out all the PVD weather instrument options available.