Mechanical and tribological properties of vapour deposited low friction coatings on Ni plated substrates

Soft steel and aluminium substrates with load-carrying layers of electropla ted nickel were coated with commercially available low friction vapour depo sited coatings. The mechanical and tribological properties of the coating a nd substrate composites were evaluated with special emphasis on the influen ce of thr nickel layer. Two different thicknesses of the intermediate load- carrying nickel layer were tested. The samples were evaluated regarding fri ction and sliding wear, abrasive wear, hardness and elastic modulus, morpho logy and coating thickness and adhesion between substrate and coating. It w as found that all the evaluated low friction coatings were possible to be s uccessfully deposited on the intermediate nickel layer. A relatively thick intermediate nickel layer is a promising candidate for improvement of the l oad-carrying capacity. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.