METAL-CARBON LAYERS FOR INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Physical vapour deposition (PVD) coatings have been well established i n the cutting tool industry for many years. In the near future the hig h wear resistance and low friction coefficient of PVD coatings will be of interest for applications in constructional elements. Today the de position process and the quality control of coated parts are accompani ed by several problems: during the deposition process the temperature of the constructional elements must not exceed 200-degrees-C; the comp osition of the deposited layers has to be reproducible; methods for th e quality control of coated parts need to be integrated in series cont rol. These problems will be discussed for reactively sputtered metal-c arbon layers (W-C:H). Methods of quality control such as Rockwell C in dentation and glow discharge optical spectrometry will be illustrated. First applications of W-C layers in the automotive industry are prese nted.