Tribological Characteristics of sputtered Au/Cr films on alumina substrates at elevated temperatures

Conference · Fri Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:205588

Benoy, P A ^[1]; DellaCorte, C ^[2]

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1. Parks Coll. of St. Louis Univ., Cahokia, IL (United States)
2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cleveland, OH (United States). Lewis Research Center

This paper describes research to evaluate the tribological properties of alumina pins sliding against thin sputtered gold films deposited on alumina disk substrates. A 250 {angstrom} thick chromium interlayer was first deposited onto the alumina test disks to enhance adhesion and high temperature wetting of the gold films. The Au/Cr films were tribotested in pure sliding in a pin-on-disk tribometer under a 4.9 N load at 1 m/s. The test atmosphere was room air at temperatures of 25, 500, and 800 C and the test duration varied from 60 to 540 min. The use of the Au/Cr films reduced friction by about a factor of two compared to the unlubricated alumina sliding couple. The coating prevented wear of the alumina substrate disks and reduced pin wear by one to two orders of magnitude. In addition, wear lives in excess of 200 000 sliding passes (9 hr) were observed during sliding at 800 C. Results suggest that these films show promise for the practical lubrication of many high temperature sliding components.

• Research Organization: Parks Coll. of St. Louis Univ., Cahokia, IL (United States); National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cleveland, OH (United States). Lewis Research Center
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 205588
• Report Number(s): DOE/NASA--50306-3; NASA-TM--106078; CONF-930419--7; ON: DE96007387; NC: NONE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
CHROMIUM
GOLD
SLIDING FRICTION
SOLID LUBRICANTS
THIN FILMS
TRIBOLOGY