Precision Surface Finishing

Modern advanced surface treatments are used more and more in daily manufacturing of parts for the automotive industry to serve functional and decorative purposes. Higher specific loads (thermal, mechanical, chemical, etc.), weight and friction reduction, longer components lifetime, and improved corrosion resistance are demanding for modern automotive systems. Within the last decades, high-performance surface solutions and new or improved surface treatments, especially in the group of plasma-assisted processes, both for diffusion and deposition processes were developed to provide economic applications for automotive parts.  All kinds of surface treatments such as PVD, PACVD, thermochemical heat treatment, chemical treatments and thermal spraying are among of options. In addition, the combination treatment involving at least two different treatments is also a frequent practice.  It will be shown that these new treatments are becoming more common in engine applications and power train.

The potential of optimized functional surface generation is demonstrated both for different types of substrate materials (e.g., Al alloys, sintered steels, case-hardened steels, etc.) and part geometry (e.g., cylinder bores, screws, etc). Due to the fact that an enormous wide property field of surfaces is adjustable within these competing surface treatments, it becomes common to substitute the more limited traditional treatment-substrate systems (e.g., galvanizing, electroplating etc.) with the described advanced or precision treatments. Besides a general description of the surface treatments and their main application aspects, the internal coating of bores inside the engine by plasma spraying, the increased corrosion protection of power train parts by the IONIT OX process as well as piston ring treatments, and the widespread potential for DLC coatings are among the interests for auto-part surface treatments.  Their validation on the effective quality of course are equally important issues to be concerns and verified after the surface treatments.