Friction‐reducing coatings by dual fast atom beam technique

Abstract

Friction‐reducing coatings were formed by the dual fast atom beam technique. The coatings were double‐layer films consisting of hard underlayers (B, TiB2, B4C, and BN) with an added upperlayer of MoS2 solid lubricant. The double‐layer solid lubricants had 50% lower friction coefficients than lubricant films alone, less than 0.01 and had high durability. The hard films obtained by the accelerated fast atom bombardment of their growth surface had either a single or polycrystalline structure, while those without bombardment had an amorphous structure. Feasibility of the double‐layer solid lubricants was demonstrated by fabrication (<40 g cm) double‐layer solid lubricant ball bearings which were tested up to 106 cycles and demonstrated a low (<40 g cm) motive torque under a 3‐kg load.