Coating - substrate adhesion is paramount in all applications. The surface of metallic substrate is engineered by plasma cleaning to remove contamination and metal ion implantation to enhance wetting of the subsequent coating layer. The balance between cleaning and implantation is controlled by the ionisation in the plasma source. Pretreatments by HIPIMS result in atomically clean interface that promote local epitaxial growth on polycrystalline substrates and achieve high coating adhesion. Technology patented by Sheffield Hallam University (PDF available here).