A study of the wear behavior of diamond-like carbon films under the dry reciprocating sliding contact

This paper describes the tribological behaviors of the DLC films evaporated by graphite cathodic arc method in dry reciprocating sliding against Al-Si alloy and Al2O3. The results showed that the frictional behaviors of the s ystem exhibited a pronounced break-in with wear at the counterbody and the DLC film. After break-in stage, the frictional coefficient obtained at a st eady-state were about 0.1. During break-in for Al-Si alloy against DLC film , system wear is mainly adhesive wear. After this initial wear stage, fatig ue wear and adhesive wear are probably the dominating mechanisms for the co unterbody, and abrasive wear and adhesive wear are probably the dominating mechanisms for the DLC film. Besides, for Al2O3 reciprocating sliding again st the DLC film, system wear during break-in is mainly mocroabrasive wear d ue to the rough asperities of Al2O3 counterbody. After the initial wear sta ge, fatigue wear is probably the primary mechanism for Al2O3 counterbody, a nd abrasive wear is probably the primary mechanism for the film. In additio n, the wear loss was relatively higher for the softer Al-Si alloy and the D LC film. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.