Friction and wear properties of carbon coated tool steel with pre-implantation by PIII

Carbon films were deposited on high-speed tool steel substrates under 20 keV of bias voltage, 1 Pa of gas pressure and for 2 h of process time by plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII). Pre-implantation with nitrogen, methane or acethylene was also carried out. In order to investigate the substrate temperature effect, carbon tool steel substrates were simultaneously treated. The final substrate temperature was estimated from the hardness measurements of the carbon tool steel substrate. Depth profiles of the implanted elements were obtained by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). Raman spectroscopy was employed for the structural characterization of the films. The hardness of the deposited films was measured using a nano-indenter with the maximum load of 1 mN. A friction and wear test was performed against bearing steel ball without lubrication. The Raman spectrum suggests that the deposited carbon films are typical diamond-like-carbon. The friction coefficient of the deposited film was around 0.2, and wear properties depended on the pre-implantation conditions. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.