Kabushiki Kaisha Riken

Nissan Motor Company Limited

Nissin Electric Co., Ltd.

Katsuhiro Tsuji

Masaki Moronuki

Yutaka Mabuchi

Takahiro Hamada

Tomoyuki Koike

Takuma Sekiya

Akio Shinohara

Hiroyuki Izumi

Kazuya Nishimura

Takashi Matsui

Keiji Honda

Minoru Kawanishi

Ryo Wakabayashi

Takayuki Sato

A coated sliding memberfor use under an environment where it is in contact with lubricant, comprising: a base material; and a first hard carbon layerhaving a thickness of 3 &#x3bc;m or more formed on a surface of the base material by a vacuum arc method using carbon and consisting of diamond-like carbon, containing substantially no hydrogen and being configured only of carbon, and a second hard carbon layerformed on a surface of the first hard carbon layer by a vacuum arc method using carbon and consisting of diamond-like carbon, containing substantially no hydrogen and being configured only of carbon and nitrogen, the film thickness of the second hard carbon layer being 3 to 35% of the film thickness of the first hard carbon layer.

Coated sliding member

The present invention provides a piston ring having excellent abrasion resistance to an aluminum alloy cylinder or cylinder liner formed of a mating material and is therefore capable of decreasing abrasion of the mating material. An exemplary piston ring has a hard carbon coating formed on an outer peripheral surface, and the hard carbon coating contains 0.5 atom % or more to less than 5 atom % of tungsten (W).

Piston ring

A combination of a cylinderof an internal combustion engine and a piston ringfor sliding an inner periphery of the cylinder, wherein at least a sliding face of the cylinder is composed of an aluminum alloy including 8 mass % to 22 mass % of Si and at least one or more particles selected from the group consisting of Si, AlOand SiOparticles each having a diameter of 3 &#x3bc;m or more, and at least an outer periphery of the piston ring is coated with a hard carbon coatingcomposed only of hydrogen and carbon.

Combination of cylinder and piston ring

In a member having a hydrogen-containing, amorphous carbon coating having a relatively smooth surface, similarly amorphous, fine carbon particles are dispersed in the hydrogen-containing, amorphous carbon coating to have improved cracking resistance while keeping smoothness on the surface and hardness in the entire coating. Specifically, fine particles discharged from a carbon cathode of an arc evaporation source by arc discharge are introduced into the coating, so that similarly amorphous, fine carbon particles are dispersed in the hydrogen-containing, amorphous carbon coating.

Member having hydrogen-containing, hard, amorphous carbon coating and its production method

An arc plasma sourcefor evaporating a cathode material of a cathodeby arc discharge controlled by a magnetic field, comprising a magnetic field forming mechanismarranged outside the cathode for forming a magnetic field M in parallel to the center axis of the cathode near an evaporation surface; a supporting mechanismfor supporting the cathode; a cooling mechanismfor cooling the cathode; and a tapered ringbeing truncated cone shaped and having a through-hole into which the cathode penetrates along the axial direction of the through-hole, the tapered ring being arranged to be tapered toward the evaporation surface of the cathode; wherein the tapered ring is made of a ferromagnetic material and the front end of the tapered ring is positioned coplanar with the evaporation surface of the cathode or is positioned posterior to the evaporation surface in use.

Arc plasma source

A sliding member is characterized in that a sliding surface of the sliding member is coated with an amorphous hard carbon film, and a surface of the amorphous hard carbon film has a ten-point mean roughness of equal to or less than 0.7 micrometers and an initial wear height in a range of 0.07 to 0.14 micrometers.

Sliding member

A valve lifter, in which an amorphous hard carbon film is coated at least on the surface that slides against a cam, is characterized in that the surface of a base material (substrate) has an arithmetic mean roughness of Ra 0.01 to 0.03 micrometers, and the maximum length of the scratch on the base surface is made to be equal to or shorter than 250 micrometers.

Growing community of inventors

Niigata, Japan

Katsuhiro Tsuji