Nanodiamond material specialist Carbodeon, based in Finland, has worked with German metal finishing specialist CCT Plating to develop a new electroless nickel plating for sliding applications. Electroless nickel coatings can offer advantages over other coating types, such as corrosion and abrasion resistance, creating an even coating thickness over complex geometries and lower cost, the company says. Carbodeon says that they don't perform well in tribological applications involving moving metal parts, where adhesive wear and galling tend to lead to rapid wear or failure, but reports that incorporating Carbodeon NanoDiamond into the coating solves this problem.
Spherical diamond nanoparticles are treated to make them disperse in coating liquids and carry a positive electrical charge on their surfaces. In the plating process, the diamond particles behave similarly to positively charged metal ions and together with the coating material they co-deposit onto the component. The metal-diamond composite surface treatments have been improved to better combat adhesive wear, which occurs mainly when the plated parts are in sliding contact with other metal parts. Wear rate is reduced by 30% as plated and by up to 85% in the annealed state.
This story is reprinted from material from Carbodeon, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
