Abstract: Substrates comprising a surface comprising chromium, said surface being adapted to exhibit reduced coefficient of friction and/or increased hardness.

Abstract: Substrates comprising a surface comprising chromium, said surface being adapted to exhibit reduced coefficient of friction and/or increased hardness.

Abstract: Substrates comprising a surface comprising chromium, said surface being adapted to exhibit reduced coefficient of friction and/or increased hardness.

Abstract: A process for treating a chromium coating and/or the surface of a chromium alloy to increase hardness, and/or to decrease coefficient of friction; chromium alloys and/or chromium coatings with surfaces having increased hardness and/or decreased coefficient of friction; and, components comprising chromium alloys and/or chromium coatings with surfaces having increased hardness and/or decreased coefficient of friction.

Abstract: A plasma-based method for the deposition of diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings is described. The process uses a radio-frequency inductively coupled discharge to generate a plasma at relatively low gas pressures. The deposition process is environmentally friendly and scaleable to large areas, and components that have geometrically complicated surfaces can be processed. The method has been used to deposit adherent 100-400 nm thick DLC coatings on metals, glass, and polymers. These coatings are between three and four times harder than steel and are therefore scratch resistant, and transparent to visible light. Boron and silicon doping of the DLC coatings have produced coatings having improved optical properties and lower coating stress levels, but with slightly lower hardness.

Abstract: Process for forming adherent coatings using plasma processing. Plasma Immersion Ion Processing (PIIP) is a process where energetic (hundreds of eV to many tens of keV) metallic and metalloid ions derived from high-vapor-pressure organometallic compounds in a plasma environment are employed to deposit coatings on suitable substrates, which coatings are subsequently relieved of stress using inert ion bombardment, also in a plasma environment, producing thereby strongly adherent coatings having chosen composition, thickness and density. Four processes are utilized: sputter-cleaning, ion implantation, material deposition, and coating stress relief. Targets are placed directly in a plasma and pulse biased to generate a non-line-of-sight deposition without the need for complex fixturing. If the bias is a relatively high negative potential (20 kV-100 kV) ion implantation will result.

Abstract: A process for treating a chromium coating and/or the surface of a chromium alloy to increase hardness, and/or to decrease coefficient of friction; chromium alloys and/or chromium coatings with surfaces having increased hardness and/or decreased coefficient of friction; and, components comprising chromium alloys and/or chromium coatings with surfaces having increased hardness and/or decreased coefficient of friction.

Abstract: A process for forming an adherent diamond-like carbon coating on a workpiece of suitable material such as an aluminum alloy is disclosed. The workpiece is successively immersed in different plasma atmospheres and subjected to short duration, high voltage, negative electrical potential pulses or constant negative electrical potentials or the like so as to clean the surface of oxygen atoms, implant carbon atoms into the surface of the alloy to form carbide compounds while codepositing a carbonaceous layer on the surface, bombard and remove the carbonaceous layer, and to thereafter deposit a generally amorphous hydrogen-containing carbon layer on the surface of the article.