Improvement of tribological characteristics under water lubrication of DLC-coatings by surface polishing

To achieve a hydraulic power system, it is important to control tribology because water has a lack of lubricity. Therefore, coated surface is necessary under water lubrication. Diamond-like-carbon (DLC)-coating is known as a useful material because of its high hardness and low friction, therefore it can be used as a coating durable for the water lubrication. Deposition methods of DLC-coating are developed in various ways. Particles called “droplets” are observed on the surface of DLC-coating depends on deposition methods and it can affect friction and wear properties. In this study, DLC-coating was prepared using a multi-cathode unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBMS) system. The surface was polished with diamond slurry solution and aero lap to remove droplets. DLC-coatings were evaluated by tribo-tests before and after polishing. It is considered that some surface modification occurred. Moreover, the results of tribo-tests show that friction coefficients became lower and more stable than before polishing. Although partial delamination was observed after tribo-tests without polishing, no appreciable wear was observed after polishing.