with Prof. Ben Beake, Micro Materials Ltd.

Click here to watch a recording of the seminar (Friday October 22nd 2021)

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings can combine high hardness with low friction but they are often deposited with high levels of intrinsic stress and display low adhesion strength resulting in poor performance in demanding applications. A key challenge is to develop advanced DLC coatings capable of withstanding more demanding applications in the automotive, cutting tools, MEMS and oil and gas sectors. In highly loaded mechanical contact applications a combination of load support and resistance to impact fatigue is often required. Longer lifetime of coated components may be achieved by designing the coating system to combine these properties rather than by solely aiming to maximise coating hardness as this may be accompanied by brittle fracture and higher wear.

In this presentation, we show how data from a range of nanomechanical and tribological test techniques in the multi-functional NanoTest Vantage (nanoindentation, nano- and micro-scratch, nano- and micro-wear, nano- and micro-impact) can be used, with supporting simulation, to improve the design of DLC coating architectures for enhanced wear resistance in specific applications [1-3].

References:

[1] Micro-scale impact testing – A new approach to studying fatigue resistance in hard carbon coatings, BD Beake, TW Liskiewicz, A Bird, X Shi, Tribol Int, 149 (2020) 105732. 

[2] Probing fatigue resistance in multi-layer DLC coatings by micro- and nano-impact: Correlation to erosion tests, SJ McMaster, TW Liskiewicz, A Neville, BD Beake, Surf Coat Tech (2020) 126319.

[3] Influence of Si- and W- doping on micro-scale reciprocating wear and impact performance of DLC coatings on hardened steel, BD Beake, SJ McMaster, TW Liskiewicz, A Neville, Tribol Int 160 (2021) 107063.