Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 647–652

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Tribological behaviour of DLC-films and their application in micro deep drawing

Zhenyu Hu ∗ , Alexej Schubnov, Frank Vollertsen
BIAS – Bremer Institut für Angewandte Strahltechnik GmbH, Klagenfurter Str. 2, D-28359 Bremen, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this work, the tribological behaviour of DLC-coated as well as uncoated tools was characterized by tests
Received 6 December 2010 on a tribometer. Special attention was paid to assess how the failure mechanisms of the films proceed, for
Received in revised form 1 August 2011 example, whether the so-called “eggshell effect” plays a role in the failure of the films. Compared to the
Accepted 14 October 2011
uncoated tools, the DLC-coated tools showed a significantly lower friction coefficient to the work piece
Available online 20 October 2011
material stainless steel X5CrNi18-10. As the contact pressure was varied from 215 to 330 N/mm2 , which
is comparable to the maximum contact pressure in deep drawing, no damages in form of cracks or flaking
Keywords:
were observed. Furthermore, lubricant-free micro deep drawing was performed with DLC-coated tools
Micro forming
Deep drawing
made of tool steel X153CrMoV12. Though no lubricant was used, the experimentally measured punch
DLC-coating force was lower than that from experiments using lubricant with uncoated tools. This indicates that the
DLC-coating has a great application potential in micro forming.
© 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction is – due to small dimensions – more complex than in macro range.

Micro formed parts are often components of micro system
technologies (MST) or micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS).
Such parts are e.g. leverages, connector pins, resistor caps, contact
springs and chip lead frames (Geiger et al., 2001). The estimated
rise in turnover from 10 to 19 billion US $ from 2004 until 2009
(Wicht et al., 2005) shows a growing demand for micro formed
parts, which is mainly driven by a rising trend towards minia-
turization. Thus, investigation and improvement of micro forming
processes are needed (Tiesler and Engel, 2000). A lot of work was
carried out concerning the similarity theory (Pawelski, 1993), the
theory of how to transfer macro forming to micro forming. In con-
trast to the assumption of the theory of similarity, there are size
effects which occur due to the fact that a correct scaling (e.g. with
respect to friction) is not possible (Vollertsen and Hu, 2008). A
comprehensive review about size effects is given in (Vollertsen
et al., 2009), which shows that there are size effects in the mate-
rial strength, the lubricated friction and the formability. Kim et al.
observed the size effects in flow curves (Kim et al., 2009). Vollert-
sen and Hu demonstrated the size effect in tribology (Vollertsen
and Hu, 2006).
Due to the so-called tribological size effect, the friction coeffi-
cient between work piece and tools in micro forming is larger than
in macro forming, which leads to a lower forming limit. On the other
hand, the cleaning of lubricant on work pieces after micro forming
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 421 21858111; fax: +49 421 21858063.
E-mail address: hu@bias.de (Z. Hu).
Therefore, tools with low friction coefficient to work piece under
dry conditions are desired. One possibility to enable lubricant-free
forming especially in the micro range is the DLC-coating of forming
tools.
A successful application of DLC-coated forming tools was given
by Murakawa et al. in macro dry deep drawing with blank material
of aluminum (Murakawa et al., 1995). However, the local con-
tact pressure between blank and forming tools (Hu, 2009) during
deep drawing process can pose a potential threat to the coatings,
since they could be damaged due to the so-called eggshell effect
(Bentzon et al., 1994). This was confirmed by Murakawa et al. in
macro dry deep drawing with the blank material of zinc-plated
steel, in which the involved forming force was much larger than
that with aluminum and therefore caused the peeling of the DLC-
film on forming tools (Murakawa et al., 1998). In micro forming,
the ratio of film thickness to blank thickness is much larger than
in macro forming. The DLC-coating might therefore become rela-
tively stiffer than the blank material and may consequently bear
the load in micro forming. Gong et al. investigated the tribologi-
cal behaviour of DLC-coating using ball-on-disc-test (ball material:
Si3 N4 , velocity: 0.02 m/s, load: 100 g) and applied DLC-coated form-
ing tools in dry micro deep drawing, but under a different condition
(blank material: steel, punch velocity: 0.01 mm/s) (Gong et al.,
2011). As is known, the material-pairing, the velocity and the load
are decisive for the tribological behaviour during forming process.
Therefore, keeping the same test condition (material-paring and
velocity) for both ball-on-disc-test and micro deep drawing fur-
ther investigations on the tribological behaviour of DLC-coating are
carried out in this work with consideration of the influence of the
load.

0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2011.10.012
648 Z. Hu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 647–652

Fig. 1. Principle of the experimental setup for wear test on a tribometer.

2. Experimental Fig. 2. Principle of the experimental setup for micro deep drawing.

2.1. Wear test Table 2

Geometrical parameters for the micro deep drawing.
The principal set-up of the tribometer is shown in Fig. 1. The
Punch diameter, dp [mm] 1
force Fz is applied by means of a servo-motor on a vertical spindle Die inner diameter, DZ [mm] 1.06
to the sample that is positioned horizontally in between. The sam- Punch radius, rp [mm] 0.1
ple is located on a table with a linear actuator. This sample-table Drawing radius, rZ [mm] 0.12
creates an oscillating motion relative to the spindle. The counter Blank thickness, s0 [mm] 0.025

body (ball) is located below the spindle. The force measurement

data (Fx , Fz ) are recorded via a force sensor integrated into the spin-
3 ␮m. In the setup, the punch and the blank holder are driven by the
dle by a computer. As opposed body, balls of the steel X5CrNi18-10
upper slide and the lower slide, respectively. This allows control-
(from Nanoball, quality 100, charge D78.0.RP.0100.2) were used.
ling the blank holder force precisely, while the punch moves into
The samples and the balls were cleaned before each experiment
the die. The principle of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 2.
with 2-propanol. The applied parameters are listed in Table 1. The
The geometrical parameters of micro deep drawing are shown in
surface of the used samples was examined before and after the
Table 2. The workpiece material of stainless steel (X5CrNi18-10)
tribological tests by means of microscopy (SEM, light optical micro-
with a thickness of 0.025 mm was used in this investigation. The
scope). The roughness measurement and the investigations of the
flow curve of this workpiece material is shown in Fig. 3. The blanks
wear track profiles after the wear experiments were performed
for deep drawing were cut by a Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of
using a profilometer (Veeco, type Dektak 3ST).
1064 nm. During deep drawing, a constant blank holder force with
an initial blank holder pressure of 1 N/mm2 was applied.
2.2. Micro deep drawing
3. Results
Micro deep drawing with DLC-coated and uncoated forming
tools was performed. Due to the large friction coefficient between
3.1. Wear behaviour of the DLC-film
blank and uncoated forming tool, no sound parts can be acquired
without lubricant. Therefore, the mineral oil HBO was used as lubri-
The hardness of the used DLC-film in this work was measured
cant for the experiments with uncoated forming tools. For the deep
with the equipment Fischerscope H100VP XY before the tribotests.
drawing with the DLC-coated forming tools, no lubricant was used.
The measurement results are shown in Fig. 4. The hardness of the
All experiments were carried out on a double-axis micro form-
DLC-film reaches the maximum (about 2000 HV) at the indentation
ing press, which was developed in BIAS (Schulze Niehoff and
depth of about 0.2 ␮m and decreases with further indentation till
Vollertsen, 2007). This micro forming press is highly dynamic. It is
about 1400 HV at the indentation depth of 0.8 ␮m.
driven by electrical linear motors with a maximum acceleration of
During tribotests, two different loads (5 N and 25 N) were
17 g and a maximum velocity of 3.2 m/s. The positioning error of this
applied, which correspond to contact pressures of 215 and
press is below 3 ␮m at maximum acceleration. The repeat position-
ing error of this press is below 1 ␮m up to a stroke of 8 mm. The two
movable slides of this machine can move independently from each
other. The experimental setups were installed on the micro form-
ing press including a force measurement system with an accuracy
of 0.01 N and a position measurement system with an accuracy of

Table 1
Wear tests parameters using a tribometer.

Movement Linear, reciprocating

Counterbody Ball, 10 mm diameter

Oscillation distance 5 mm
Movement velocity of the sample 1 mm/s
Temperature Room temperature
Lubricant No
Fig. 3. Flow curve of the blank material (X5CrNi18-10) in thickness of 0.025 mm.
 Z. Hu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 647–652
Fig. 4. Hardness of the DLC-film.
Fig. 5. Development of the friction coefficient of uncoated and DLC-coated steel
X153CrMoV12 by tribotest against the steel X5CrNi18-10 (load 5 N, velocity
v = 1 mm/s, dry friction).
330 N/mm2 , which corresponds to the local contact pressure
within deep drawing with the blank material of stainless steel
X5CrNi18-10. The acquired friction coefficients between uncoated
and DLC-coated samples of steel X153CrMoV12 and the stainless
steel X5CrNi18-10 under these loads are shown in Figs. 5 and 6.
Under both loads, similar results were obtained. The average fric-
tion coefficient for the DLC-coated X153CrMoV12 is  = 0.166 under
the load of 5 N and  = 0.18 under the load of 25 N, much lower than
that for uncoated X153CrMoV12. Furthermore, the development
of the friction coefficient with time differs for the two cases. For
an uncoated sample, the friction coefficient increased dramatically
after about 100 s of tests (see Figs. 5 and 6a). The friction behaviour
Fig. 6. Development of the friction coefficient of uncoated (a) and DLC-coated steel X153CrMoV12 (b) by tribotest against the steel X5CrNi18-10 (load 25 N, velocity v = 1 mm/s,
dry friction).
649
of a DLC-coated sample under the same conditions shows first a typ-
ical run-in period, in which the friction coefficient increases only
slightly, and then drops in again approximately symmetrical to the
increase (see Figs. 5 and 6). After this running-in, a stable friction
coefficient is observed, even after 1200 s of test time, see Fig. 5.
This behaviour of the friction coefficients is reflected in the wear
on the surface of the samples as well as of the counterballs. Due to
the contact pressure, a wear trace in form of groove was built on the
samples. For the case of an uncoated sample (Fig. 7a), this groove
has a maximum depth of more than 10 ␮m, and the profile of the
track is irregular, see Fig. 7c. Correspondingly, the counterball used
for this case shows a big wear trace on the surface, too, see Fig. 7e.
Compared to this, the groove on the DLC-coated sample (Fig. 7b)
has a maximum depth of about 1 ␮m (Fig. 7d), much smaller than
that in case of an uncoated sample. Furthermore, the wear trace on
the surface of the counterball is also much smaller than that in the
other case, see Fig. 7f.
3.2. Micro deep drawing using DLC-coated forming tools
Micro deep drawing with the DLC-coated forming tool was suc-
cessfully carried out without using any lubricant. As an example,
the DLC-coated die and a sound part from this micro deep draw-
ing are shown in Fig. 8. On the wall of this sample, no damages
due to friction can be detected. During the experiment, the punch
force was measured. As more experiments were repeated, the cor-
respondingly measured punch force vs. stroke curves varied within
a certain range. For example, the maximum punch force ranges
between 41 and 46 N, which corresponds to a deviation of about
12.5%, see Fig. 9. For further analysis, only the punch force vs. stroke
curve out of average values is taken into account.
4. Discussion
4.1. Influence of the load on the friction coefficient
Under dry condition the friction coefficient increases with
increasing the load in ball-on-disc-test. The average friction coeffi-
cient under the load of 5 N is about  = 0.166, while  = 0.18 under
the load of 25 N. The reason for that could be the hardness distri-
bution of the DLC-film. According to Fig. 7, the indentation depth
of the ball into the DLC-film under the load of 25 N is about 0.7 ␮m,
which corresponds to hardness of about 1700 HV for the DLC-film,
see Fig. 4. A lower load, for instance 5 N, results in a less indenta-
tion depth and therefore a higher hardness for the DLC-film. This
leads to a better resistance against the adhesion and therefore lower
friction coefficient.
Under both loads the friction coefficients of the uncoated sam-
ples increased after about 100 s steeply from 0.3 to more than 0.7,
650 Z. Hu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 647–652

Fig. 7. Wear of the uncoated (left) and DLC-coated (right) samples as well as the counterballs (load 25 N, velocity v = 1 mm/s, dry friction): (a) uncoated sample; (b) coated
sample; (c) profile of the uncoated sample; (d) profile of the coated sample; (e) counterball to the uncoated sample; (f) counterball to the coated sample.

Fig. 8. DLC-coated die (a) and sound part (b) of lubricant-free micro deep drawing.
 Z. Hu et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 212 (2012) 647–652
Fig. 9. Punch force vs. stroke curves of micro deep drawing using DLC-coated form-
ing tools.
which indicates a severe wear on the surface of the samples, see
Fig. 7a and e. Due to the high adhesion between the uncoated sam-
ple material X153CrMoV12 and the ball material X5CrNi18-10 the
load shows no influence on the friction coefficient.
4.2. Application potential of the DLC-coating in micro deep
drawing
The tribological tests were carried out with a contact pressure
range, which is typical for micro deep drawing. During tribotests
with DLC-coated samples, no cracks or similar damages, caused by
the so-called eggshell effect, were observed. The reason for that
might be the plasticity of the DLC coatings. As the counterball con-
tacted the sample surface with a certain load, the DLC-coating was
formed into a groove form. However, a bulging region at the edge
of this groove can be observed, see Fig. 7d. This indicates that the
DLC-coating can bear a small plastic forming. As long as the plas-
tic forming resulted by loads does not exceed the plastic limit of
the DLC-coating, which is unknown yet, no cracks will occur. This
should allow the application of DLC-coatings in micro deep draw-
ing, in which a small forming force is involved.
Fig. 10. Comparison of the punch force vs. stroke curves of micro deep drawing with
DLC-coated and uncoated forming tools.
651
This was investigated, using both DLC-coated and un-coated
forming tools in micro deep drawing. A comparison of the aver-
age punch force vs. stroke curves of these two cases is shown in
Fig. 10. The measured punch force vs. stroke from the deep drawing
with uncoated forming tools is higher than the one with DLC-coated
forming tools, although a lubricant (mineral oil HBO) was used for
deep drawing with uncoated forming tools. This indicates that the
DLC-coating can reduce friction between blank and forming tool
in deep drawing more than the lubricant. Therefore, DLC-coated
forming tools have a great application potential in micro forming
under dry condition.
5. Conclusions
From the reported work it can be concluded, that the DLC-coated
forming tools can be used for micro deep drawing under dry condi-
tion and show a great application potential in this range, because:
• The friction coefficient of a DLC film against the stainless steel
X5CrNi18-10 (dry friction without lubricant) is lower than that
the friction of an uncoated steel X153CrMoV12 against the stain-
less steel X5CrNi18-10 under a load in the range of 5–25 N,
equalling a contact pressure in the range of 215–330 N/mm2 .
• No damage of the DLC coatings due to eggshell effect, cracks or
spalling could be observed.
• Applying the DLC-coated forming tools in micro deep drawing
can reduce the punch force more than usual lubricant such as
mineral oil.
Acknowledgements
The work reported in this paper is funded by the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Collaborative Research
Centre 747 “Micro Cold Forming” (subproject B3). The authors
would like to thank the DFG for the financial support.
Moreover, the authors would like to thank the Stiftung Institut
fuer Werkstofftechnik (IWT) in Bremen in Germany for carrying out
the tensile test for the stainless steel in thicknesses of 0.025 mm.
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