New ways to develop lubricating composite coatings on stainless steel to improve its tribological behavior

摘要

To improve their productivity, companies wish to increase the lifetime of mechanical parts and in particular, stainless steel subjected to mechanical friction and wear by protecting them with a top-coating. One way is to provide an alternative route to conventional vapor phase methods (PVD, CVD, plasma). The sol-gel process represents an innovative way for this kind of application and opens a wide range of investigations for the protection of complex shaped parts at a reduced cost. A part of this study is relative to the protection of 304L and 316L stainless steels by the sol-gel oxide coating. We have previously developed an alternative way by sol-gel route to synthesize anti-wear alumina coatings, with a global improvement corresponding to a reduction of the total wear volume by a factor 7 compared to uncoated system. In a second step, it will be studied the feasibility of incorporating the lubricant directly into the coating. S. Rahoui shows that the addition of carbon species inside the coating significantly reduces the friction coefficient and wear. In this context, it will be studied the possibilities to incorporate carbon in alumina coating to reduce friction coefficient.