Innovations, No. 6 (13), November 2011
Special Technologies LLC was created under the auspices of the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Yekaterinburg) and the research center of a large company specializing in polymer manufacturing, and in close collaboration with several former military industrial complex enterprises. The main task of the newly created company was initially seen as the introduction of the best achievements of Russian scientists into real production processes.
The specialists, who are now employees of our company, were earlier involved in implementation of the technology of diamond-like coatings for videotape-recorder heads made by Samsung Electronics. This technology is known in Russia as Diamond Head. During the next five years the same team of specialists worked on improving and implementing this technology at such Japanese companies as ITAC Ltd. and Nagataseiki (Niigata Prefecture). Experience gained though working in these companies led us to the conviction that Russia is the country with highest intellectual potential, which ought to be in demand first in our own country and then perhaps abroad, through the export of high-tech products. Since 2002, the Special Technologies LLC has overcome great difficulties in finding its way onto the real market of the Russian Federation, introducing truly innovative and advanced technologies. The challenging task of introducing new developments in the first three years led our company, in our struggle for survival, to rely on support from the leadership of the Institute of Electrochemistry of the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), whose director at the time was V.A. Khokhlov. We were also allowed to use the institute’s premises. Only with the promotion of our products on the market and accumulation of our own funds four years later were we able to acquire our own manufacturing and office facilities, where we located equipment for diamond-like coating application with performance equal to that which was delivered to Japan.
Diamond-like coating application technology (English abbreviation DLCR) essentially involves plasma sputtering of graphite in a vacuum chamber and the deposition of high-energy carbon ions onto the surface of articles such as metal processing tools. As a result of this deposition an amorphous carbon coating is formed which consists of carbon atoms with both diamond-like and graphite-like bonds. Such amorphous carbon coating can be obtained within a wide range of temperatures, even at room temperature, using different materials as a substrate: metals, ceramics, glass, and plastic materials.
The high content of carbon atoms with chemical bonds specific to diamond crystals in the presence of graphite bonds leads to the formation of unique characteristics of diamond-like coatings, such as high hardness value which is comparable to that of pure diamond, low friction coefficient specific to graphite, high wear resistance, chemical stability, biological compatibility with living tissues and environmental cleanliness.
The process of deposition of such coatings is inherently related to the field of nanotechnology, as the thickness of coatings obtained varies from a few angstroms and nanometers to several micrometers. A multilayer coating of complex composition of the thickness from a few nanometers, finished with a pure diamond-like layer proved capable of withstanding enormous mechanical loading, encountered during its operating life. This has allowed us to solve the most challenging task peculiar to diamond-like coatings — the provision of good adhesion of the high strength coating to all kinds of surfaces, including high-alloyed steels used for the production of instruments and tools. The diamond-like coating applied to metal cutting tools could increase service life several times over — from a factor of 2 to one of 20, depending on the material being processed.
The coating has demonstrated its particular effectiveness in application on cutting tools for processing ductile metals, such as copper, aluminum, and zinc. Everyone who has ever tried to drill a small diameter hole in pure alum
inum or copper knows how difficult it is. Ductile metal sticking into the grooves of the drill bit prevent it from penetrating further. The drill bit would either rotate at one and the same place or break, which is worse because it's stuck inside the unfinished hole, and it's almost impossible to remove. As a result you have to drill another hole near the spoiled one or irrevocably reject the article being drilled, an
d start the job from the beginning. In the metal industry this problem is resolved by using special drills with variable diameters and special lubricating and cooling fluids. In spite of all the measures taken, however, processing of highly ductile nonferrous metals remains a challenging technological task. When using tools with diamond-like coating, due to its sliding ability which is comparable to graphite sliding ability, and because of high hardness comparable to that of diamond, metal chips do not stick in the grooves of the cutting tool even with no lubricating material. As a result, the cutting tool can last ten times longer without causing any problems for processing engineers. We have seen this in the course of real testing, carried out in a number of companies in Japan and some enterprises of the Russian defense industry. For example, Mitsubishi Carbide began widely selling metal cutting tools with DLCR coating produced applied according to the
Russian technology at the aforementioned Nagata seiki.
We are now producing diamond-like coatings by deposition technique on an industrial scale. For companies interested in this technology we can also offer free trial deposition of samples