In-situ Wear Detection of DLC Coatings under Application-oriented Conditions

Diamond-like carbon coatings (DLC) are among the most resistant and effective measures against wear on critical surfaces. Due to their high wear resistance, failure of the protective coating only occurs in the event of total failure. Understanding the processes that lead to failure is crucial for a sustainable application. Unfortunately, due to the nature of DLC coatings, it is not possible to measure wear progress using conventional methods. For this reason, a method based on radioactive isotopes for continuous wear measurement (RIC method) was used. The influence of this method on the tribological behaviour of the DLC coating was evaluated as part of this study. On the model tribometer, the combination of friction coefficient curve and continuous wear measurement method made it possible to differentiate between mild and severe wear and thus precisely determine the point of DLC failure. It was also shown that small delamination areas have little effect on the function of the much larger DLC wear track. © Austrian Society for Metallurgy of Metals (ASMET) and Bergmännischer Verband Österreich (BVÖ) 2024.