Although Oliver coatings are most often used for grinding or other material-removal jobs, Oliver also performs coating services to apply very hard, wear-resistant coatings to customers' parts. For these "hard facing" or "hard surfacing" jobs, the coating is not engineered to be open and aggressive like on a grinding tool, but rather is made with a layer of densely-packed tungsten-carbide particles fully infiltrated with a nickel-based braze alloy. Unlike with various "spray" coatings, the particles used can be rather large, and a heavy build-up can be applied. Because the parts are furnace-sintered to produce the bond, there is a strong penetration of braze alloy into the steel surface and the coatings are thus extremely resistant to flaking or spalling.