Combination of laser surface texturing and DLC coating on PEEK for enhanced tribological properties

It was shown that LST did not significantly affect the DLC/PEEK adhesion in pull-off testing, however, deep dimples and high dimple densities led to a large deformation of the substrate and caused the film to be more susceptible to cracking in scratch testing. The DLC-coated LST PEEK surfaces were rubbed against an alumina ball in dry conditions, water and bovine calf serum solutions. DLC-coated PEEK with shallow dimples and a low dimple density enabled to significantly, reduce wear and friction in distilled water and reduce wear in bovine calf serum compared with smooth DLC-coated PEEK. Smooth and LST DLC films exhibited a great stability in terms of microstructure and chemistry in all tested media.