Surface Texturing on Micro-Die and In-situ Observation of Its Dry Friction and Wear Behavior

Abstract

Because of the poor effect of lubricant in microscale dimensions, tribological issues in microforming are encountering further severe problems in the enhancement of performance in microforming operation. Therefore, as an approach to enhancing the tribological performance of the microdie surface, in the present study, we applied surface texturing on the microdie with the expectation of the wear-debris-ejecting effect. A microtextured surface was realized by using metallic masks during the deposition of diamond-like carbon (DLC). To characterize the basic tribological property of textured DLC film, the ball-on-disk tribology test was carried out. Furthermore, a system for in-situ observation during microbending was developed to characterize the practical applicability of surface texturing in the microforming operation. The textured DLC film showed a lower coefficient of friction than that of the nontextured DLC surface. Additionally, we demonstrated that surface texturing promoted the wear-debris-ejecting effect during the microforming operation.