Advancement of Thin Film Layer Sensors for Pressure and Temperature Measurements in Highly Loaded Tribological Contacts under Mixed Lubrication

摘要

The use of thin film sensors has up to now been limited to hydrodynamic and elasto-hydrodynamic contacts. In mixed lubrication conditions with solid contact the sensors used to fail rapidly. Therefore at the Institute for product development (IPEK) of the university Karlsruhe (TH) a new sensor generation is developed, which withstands the conditions of boundary friction within certain limits. The sensors are based on electrically isolating DLC (Diamond Like carbon) thin films as protecting and insulating coatings, between which the actual sensors are embedded. High hardness, resistance against abrasive wear and high chemical stability as well as good adhesive strength are outstanding characteristics of such coatings. A further goal of this work is to measure temperature distributions in diesel-oil lubricated sliding bearings. The study of such systems implicates very restrictive requirements on security against explosion, exact measurement of the friction torque and so on. A new test bench design to meet these requirements is presented.