Scuffing performance of amorphous carbon during dry-sliding contact

Editors Note: Many technologies being developed in the research lab never make it into machines. It is the nature of exploratory research. A common and recurring theme is that new ideas get over-hyped leading to unrealistic expectations (remember superconductivity, ductile ceramics etc.) which overshadow real technological value. This can lead to early disappointment and the abandoning of promising technologies. In many cases what is needed is some development work which can sort out the hype from the reality and help pave the way for application. Diamond and Diamond-like Carbon coatings are good example which might just fade away if some excellent work cannot bridge the gap between expectations and applications. The following paper does just that. These authors use a modified scuffing test to help down-select carbon coatings for engineering use. Further, they try to identify coating characteristics which lead to improved performance and hopefully commercial applications. Often, it is this bridging type work that gets skipped in the rush to develop technologies. When you read this paper I am sure you'll agree that it goes a long way to bringing diamond coatings out of the lab and into our machines.