Friction Performance Of Coatings

Coatings are thin layers of materials that are deposited onto a bulk material to achieve properties not easily attainable with substrate alone. They have attracted considerable research interest because of their numerous technical applications. Coatings are used widely in optical, microelectronic, packaging and decorative applications as they impart good mechanical, chemical, electrical, magnetic and optical properties 1 . Friction and wear properties are a critical issue for the manufacturing industry and hence characterization of friction and wear properties is important in assessing the potential of coating materials. Friction and wear properties of coatings are traditionally measured in industries using tribometer. The tribometer employs one of the standard configurations such as ball-on-disc, ring-on-disc, pin-on-disc and pin-on-block to reproduce the motion typical of many real world mechanisms. The technique is well suited for monolithic materials as well as thick coatings. However, friction and wear phenomena are essentially the outcome of surface interactions and these properties are affected by surface geometry, material and environmental conditions especially for thin coatings.