Modern Low Friction Coating Technology for Automotive Tribology

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The aim of this work is to present the overviewing results of the low friction coating technology for modern automotive application with the themes, e.g. electric vehicle (EV), R&D trends and bioethanol fuel application. According to Forbes, China, armed with EV, could have several companies among the top 10 global brands by sales in 2030. EV’s friction is more severe than traditional powertrain friction. For the protection of EV’s wear and friction, the coatings, diamond like carbon (DLC) and CrCuN, are compared in the literature. Global coating companies developed with the keywords: hybrid process, low-temperature coating process for polymer material. Last coating conferences showed R&D trends: coating for polymer materials, tetrahedral amorphous carbon (taC) coating, low-temperature coating process and multi-elements containing coatings. In Korea, research institutions, universities and Hyundai Motor Group have a long-term project for the development of ultralow friction coatings of moving parts incl. EV application. From current friction coefficient of 0.05, candidates of the friction coefficient 0.03 are, e.g. metal-doped carbon based materials. The final target is a friction coefficient of 0.01; recent results are discussed. The object of this work is firstly to overview the R&D status and the new taC coating for fuel injector ball is to investigate for the protection of bioethanol induced corrosion and wear. Furthermore the results of on developing future coatings, nanocomposite coatings, are presented.</div></div>