Zirkonium-basierte Dünnschichten in hochbeanspruchten Wälzkontakten als Alternative zu DLC und ta-C
(2009)
Coatings for slip-rolling
(2014)
The slip-rolling resistance of DLC, a-C and ta-C thin film coatings was improved considerably in the last years, but there is still room for improvements in relation to (a) the temperature stability and (b) initial surface roughness after deposition. This paper presents a novel coating-substrate system in comparison to recently developed DLC coatings in a bench-mark test procedure exerting slip-rolling conditions in the presence of liquid lubricants. One of the Zr-based thin film coatings can withstand at least 1 million cycles under initial Hertzian contact pressures of up to P0max = 3500 MPa and oil temperatures of at least 120 °C associated with low coefficients of friction under mixed/boundary conditions or ten million of cycles under P0max = 2940 MPa. In comparison, some of the newly developed DLC coatings are slip-rolling resistant for at least up to 10 million cycles at RT (some of them also at 120 °C oil temperature) under Hertzian contact pressures of Pmax = 2600/2940 MPa. In general, Zr-based thin film coatings do not require special formulated oil formulations and Zr(C,N) bear on a straight coating architecture suited for mass production with nanosized layers.
The light-weight approach and fuel economy targets in today's automotive engineering require tribosystems, which can withstand higher contact pressures associated with low coefficients of friction. The application of high-performance coatings represents one approach among others. This paper presents some recently developed DLC coatings (a-C:H and ta-C) as well as a novel coating-substrate system (Zr(C,N)) in a benchmark test procedure under slip-rolling conditions in the presence of liquid lubricants. Various coatings with different thickness, interlayer and substrates were evaluated for their slip-rolling resistance in different lubricants at ambient temperature and at 120 °C. Results indicate that some of these coating systems can withstand at least 10 million cycles under initial Hertzian contact pressures of up to Pmax = 3.500 MPa and oil temperatures of at least 120 °C associated with low coefficients of friction under mixed/boundary conditions. Surface of the coatings and the counter bodies were analysed and compared with untreated substrates.