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Components in moving contact with other bodies, or exposed
to an erosive environment, are subject to wear. The world-wide cost of friction and wear
is estimated to be $300 Billion per year.
In order to protect components from wear, and thus extend their
useful life and cost effectiveness, various techniques have been devised,
including the application of coatings which are harder than the material
which they protect. A complex
combination of coating properties governs the effectiveness of such
protective coatings, including their adhesion to the substrate, their
chemical and thermal stability, friction coefficient, elastic modulus and
their hardness, i.e. their ability to resist penetration. Hardness is measured by indenting a
material with a sharpened, very hard indenter, usually diamond, under a
given load. The hardness is defined
by the ratio of the force applied to the indenter to the area of the
indentation.
In recent years, significant advances have been made in
the deposition of hard coatings.
Materials which are intrinsically hard, such as diamond, amorphous
diamond-like-carbon, and cubic boron nitride have been successfully
deposited. And more recently,
enhanced hardness and tribological properties have been achieved by
fabricating nano-composite coatings containing nano-grains of a hard material,
stabilized by a matrix of a second material, or nano-layers of a hard
material.
The objective of the Superhad Coating Conference is to
provide a forum for researchers and potential users of superhard coatings
to discuss their latest research results, and industrial requirements. This objective will be accomplished
through formal lecture and poster presentations, as well as informal
opportunities to interact and discuss their work.
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