Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®) News

SwRI demonstrates cost-effective diamond-like carbon coating

Process can be used on engine components and numerous other items

San Antonio -- July 8, 1996 -- Scientists at Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®) have successfully demonstrated a diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating that promises to be comparable in cost to physical vapor deposition coatings. First developed during the early 1980s at AEA Harwell in Britain, the DLC is produced using an ion beam-assisted deposition process. The coating is deposited at low temperatures and can cover areas up to several square feet. The Institute maintains a large ion beam facility dedicated to applied research and development and batch processing.

Diamond-like carbon films have many of the same properties of diamond films -- extremely low friction, high hardness, chemical inertness -- but are less expensive. And for many friction and wear applications, diamond-like carbon is considered superior to polycrystalline diamond because very smooth coatings can be deposited. The DLC coating offered by SwRI has a coefficient of friction below 0.1 under dry sliding conditions even at high values of relative humidity. Adhesion of the DLC coating to steel and other metal surfaces, a problem for many DLC methods, is excellent when an SwRI-developed bond coat (patent pending) is used.

Applications of the DLC coating already demonstrated at SwRI include friction and wear coatings for engine components and mold release coatings for compression and injection molding of plastic and rubber products. Other promising applications are tools and dies, pump components, bearings, and gears.

For more information about the new DLC coating, contact Deborah Deffenbaugh, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510, Phone (210) 522-2046, Fax (210) 522-3547.

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