Exploring the Friction and Wear Properties of Silver Coatings on 718 Alloy

Fasteners of 718 alloys are used to set up connection between each support and other components for ITER system, metal-based Ag solid lubricant coating is widely used as an anti-seizure lubricant coating due to its strong low-temperature shear resistance. But the poor adhesion to the steel surfaces has been a critical restriction for applying the silver coatings to the practical machine elements. In this work, an 8-μm silver self-lubricating coating was deposited on the surface of 718 alloy by the method of magnetron sputtering. The coating was uniform, dense and consistent. The wear mechanism was investigated by analyzing the friction and wear properties of the coating. Stress is one of the important impacts on the friction coefficient, the results showed that it first increased and then decreased with the increase of pressure at room temperature and under vacuum. Temperature exerted an effect on the silver self-lubricating coating. A study was conducted under vacuum on the friction and wear performance of the coating at 300 K, 225 K, 155 K, and 77 K, respectively. The results showed that the wear mechanism and wear state varied under various low-temperature conditions, with the severity of wear reaching the maximum only at 225 K. Through the same silver coating process, the washer of superbolt was improved by silver coating treatment.