Tribological behaviour of high performance MoS2 coatings produced by magnetron sputtering

A series of new MoS2 coatings have been developed at Teer Coatings Ltd. It has been proved that the new deposition method enhances the coating performance and the reproducibility of the coating properties for different depositions. The new films are harder and with better tribological properties than films previously reported. The films show even better performance when the MoS, is deposited onto a harder layer, such as TiN or DLC. Different tests were carried out on these coatings. Some of them were performed in laboratory conditions, such as pin-on-disc, standard scratch and multiscratch. Others were carried out in real performance tests such as drilling into Al-14%Si and 304 stainless steel, stamping coins, and automobile spline gears. In all of these applications the coating performed better that any other standard coatings. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.