Tribological properties of ta-C coatings and their industrial application

摘要

Hydrogen-free tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) coatings are known for their extraordinary tribological properties. By combining the two excellent properties of superhardness and low friction even under unlubricated conditions ta-C is the champion among the tribological coatings. However, the way from a laboratory coating to mass production of ta-C, especially for automotive part applications was quite long. There were several technical difficulties to overcome, starting from instabilities of the plasma arc- evaporation processes to the problem of coating defects due to macroparticle generation of the evaporation source.