Current Projects in the area Thin-Film Technics

The goal of this project is to develop a method for the covering of sliding-guides as well as ball bearing retainers and plain bearing bushes out of PEEK (Polyether ether ketone) with diamond-like carbon (DLC).

Overall goal of the project:

Through development of a covering method for storage parts by PEEK, the lifetime and reliability of those components should be increased substantially.

Scientific and technical project goals:

DLC-layers feature an excellent sliding property and a high friction resistance. In case of succeeding, the following outcomes can be expected:

• High lifetime of synthetic bearings
• Significant improvement of the emergency operation properties
• Improvement of running smoothness
• Greater reliability 
• Availability of rolling bearings for so far not reachable applications
• Simplification of bearing concepts, which are connected to big compromises at the moment

Tasks of inprotec:

inprotec fulfilled the following tasks within the project framework

• Support in the advancement and scale-up of the IWM-PECVD technology
• Constructional realization and integration of HF- and gas-guiding systems in the PECVD-facility
• Analysis of process cycles

Project ODPat pursues the basic approach to enhance the surfaces of aluminium-alloyings in one single “Duplex”- production process, in order to utilize possible lightweight-potentials.

Project Goals:

The project shall contribute to the support program “Systematic structuring of product features with efficient technologies”. Overall goal of the project is the development and trial of a new integral plasma-coating technology for prefabricated parts with local functional surfaces and tailor-made product features. The superordinate goal is resource-efficiency, whereat duplex-plasma technology has to be developed for components made of aluminium, which are highly stressed in a thermal, mechanical and tribological way.

By means of the development, a reduction of friction and abrasion shall be achieved. Those two attributes shall result in diminishing fuel- and lubricant consumption in the car industry, while simultaneously prolonging the lifetime of tribological cumbered components.

Tasks of inprotec:

inprotec fulfilled the following tasks within the project framework

• Support in the advancement and scale-up of the IWM-PACVD technology
• Constructional realization and integration of HF- and gas-guiding systems in the PACVD-facility
• Analysis of process cycles

The goal of project RemBob is to highly reduce the abrasion and friction coefficient of agricultural devices via DLC-coating (diamond-like carbon), in order to lower fuel consumption substantially.

Scientific and technical goals:

The optimization of the coating for highly cumbered machine-parts has the following goals

• Direct fuel consumption will fall, because the possible working-width will rise with equal motor power
• Usage of work machines with smaller motors will become possible. The weight saving will reduce unnecessary compaction of the worked soil
• The tribochemical erosion of soil cultivation equipment will be avoided or highly reduced
• Many works will only demand turndown. This will result in a friction reduce

Tasks of inprotec:

inprotec completed the adaption of the coating and systems engineering within the project framework.

The project framework encompasses the development of a marketable, large-scale applicable process technology, which contributes to the reduction or elimination of micro pollutants in or out of sewage water.

Titan-dioxide is a well-known UV-absorber and photo-catalyst. It can be used to evoke chemical reactions through ultra-violet radiation. Via specific carbon-modification of this semiconductor not only ultra-violet radiation, but also visible light with a wave-length of 535 nm could be used to activate the catalyst. With this ability, Titan-dioxide seems to be pretty interesting for technical applications.

Tasks of inprotec:

inprotec fulfilled the following tasks within the project framework

• Development of titan-dioxide coated molded paddings for widely reduction of micro pollutants in sewage water
• Analytical assessment and scientific supervision of the application of Titan-dioxide

The superordinate project goal is the development of a layer-system, which combines the positive characteristics of crystalline and amorphous carbon-based layers.

Within the project framework the completion and trial of a new facility technology is aspired. This technology should be capable to precipitate multiphase layer-systems in one process step (without interrupting vacuum and plasma). This layer-system shall consist of a thick diamond layer up to 20µm and a DLC-layer, which is optimized regarding layer-thickness, hardness and E-module.

Tasks of inprotec:

inprotec fulfilled the following tasks within the project frameworks 

• Junction of different technologies in one piloting-facility
• Process and layer design