The latest collaboration between Micro Materials' Prof Ben Beake and Dr
Stephen Goodes, Prof Tomasz Liskiewicz at Manchester Metropolitan University and
Dr Sam McMaster at ARU
has just been published in Tribology International, furthering their
collaboration in developing state-of-the-art microtribological test methods for
the NanoTest Vantage.
Their newly developed nano-fretting methodology enabled continuous measurement of actual track length and on-load displacement throughout accelerated fretting experiments on DLC coatings*, to investigate how contact size influences their friction and wear in much greater detail than has been possible previously.
*Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are a family of meta-stable amorphous materials with properties varying with their sp2 /sp3 ratio, level of hydrogenation and presence of doping elements. DLCs are generally characterised by high hardness, chemical inertness and low coefficients of friction. DLCs have been studied at the micro and nanoscale under reciprocating sliding conditions and have been identified as useful for applications in data storage and protective coatings form micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS).
In large scale mechanical systems, DLC coatings are a key protective coating.