AVS 47th International Symposium
    Surface Engineering Monday Sessions
       Session SE-MoA

Paper SE-MoA5
Aspects of Surface Engineering in the Automotive Industry

Monday, October 2, 2000, 3:20 pm, Room 201

Session: Coatings for Extreme Environments: Wear Resistant, Lubricious, Anti-corrosive, High Temperature Coatings
Presenter: Y.T. Cheng, General Motors R&D Center
Correspondent: Click to Email
The manufacturing of an automobile is to a large extent the making of engineered surfaces on several length scales using a variety of processing techniques. In this presentation, we will summarize aspects of our recent work related to surface engineering. Examples include the preparation and characterization of nanocomposite thin films consisting of metal-metal and metal-ceramic materials; their tribological properties and potential application as low-friction and wear resistant coatings for electrical connectors will be discussed. Other examples include the investigation of thin films for sensors, battery electrodes, and catalysts. We will also review our work on modeling indentation measurements. Although significant progress has been made in surface engineering, it is still largely a "trial-and-error" process. We will illustrate with examples the needs for: (1) reducing the cost and improving the reproducibility of tribological coatings, (2) better characterization techniques for mechanical property measurements at the nano- and micro-meter scales, and (3) design guidelines and models based on the fundamental understanding of the relationships between the structure, property, and performance of engineered surfaces.