Wear 221 Ž1998.

77–85

Tribological characteristics of various surface coatings for rotary

compressor vane
),1
Hoon Choa Sung
Samsung Electronics, Seoul, South Korea

Received 3 February 1998; accepted 25 June 1998

Abstract

In developing rotary compressors that will use HFC refrigerants, the biggest challenge is overcoming wear of the various components.
In particular, severe wear between the vane and roller sliding pair is a persistent problem. In this study several hard coatings were applied
on vane surfaces in order to improve the tribological characteristics, and their performances were evaluated experimentally. Coatings with
very high hardness, namely TiAlN and DLC, produced high friction and severe wear on the roller, and thus seem unsuitable for this
application. Softer WCrC Žtungsten carbide carbon. coatings formed durable tribo-films on the mating surface and showed good
tribological properties. TiN coated vanes showed good wear resistance properties but produced high friction. Ion nitriding is not suitable
for this application since the durability of ion nitride layer appeared to be insufficient to sustain the cyclic contact stress encountered in
the vane–roller system. q 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Alternative refrigerant rotary compressor; Vane–roller system; Coating; Accelerated wear test

1. Introduction good miscibility with R407C. There are various problems,

Because the chlorine in HCFC Žhydrochlorofluoro-
carbon. refrigerants has been shown to damage the ozone
layer, HCFCs will be phased out by 2020 according to the
Montreal Protocol. Several alternative refrigerants have
been proposed for replacing HCFCs with HFCs Žhydroflu-
orocarbon.. R407C ŽHFC32r125r134a, 23r25r52 wt.%.
is a possible candidate as a compressor refrigerant, as it
has thermodynamic characteristics similar to HCFCs and
retains properties of non-flammability and non-toxicity.
However, conventional mineral oil is not miscible with
R407C, which brings about another problem, that of devel-
oping new lubricants which are compatible with R407C.
Polyol ester ŽPOE. oil is being considered as one of the
best because of its good electrical insulation properties and
) shaft and bearing, roller and flange as shown in Fig. 1.
75 West Plumeria Dr., San Jose, CA 95134. Tel.: q1-408-544-5864;
Fax: q1-408-544-5925; E-mail: shchoa@sisa.samsung.com
1
Permanent address: 102-1005 Byuksan Apt., Hongeun 1-Dong, Seo-
daemu-Gu, Seoul, South Korea 120-101. Tel.: q82-2-379-7810.
however, in the actual application of the mixture of
R407C-POE oil to the compressor. Rapid wear on the
sliding parts is the most critical issue, especially in the
rotary compressor, which operates at high contact pressure
and temperature. The chlorine atoms contained in current
HCFC refrigerants appear to work like an EP or antiwear
agent by forming the metal chloride on the sliding surface
w1,2x. R407C, however, contains no chlorine and shows
inferior lubricating qualities compared with conventional
HCFC22. Also, POE oil which has high hygroscopicity
tends to form acids by hydrolysis, resulting in corrosive
wear in the compressor or hydrolytic degradation products.
Wear and degradation products can lead to the clogging of
the capillary tube in a compressor w3,4x. Improvement of
durability and reliability of compressors which use a
R407CrPOE mixture is greatly desired. In rotary compres-
sors, wear takes place mainly between vane and roller,
Among these sliding pairs, the wear between vane and
roller is the most critical, since these surfaces operate
under boundary and mixed lubrication conditions w5x. The

0043-1648r98r$ - see front matter q 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 4 3 - 1 6 4 8 Ž 9 8 . 0 0 2 4 4 - 0
78 H.C. Sung r Wear 221 (1998) 77–85

wear resistance, and their tribological performances were

evaluated using an accelerated wear test.

2. Surface coatings on the vane surface

Fig. 1. Schematic configuration of the rotary compressor.
increase of wear and friction on those components will
induce greater power consumption and shorter life of the
compressor. Since it has proven difficult to ensure suffi-
cient wear resistance with currently used sliding materials,
recent research has focused on developing new materials
or various wear resistant surface modifications w5,6x. In
this study, several surface treatments or coatings were
applied to the vane surface of a compressor to increase the
Hard coating have typically been considered more ef-
fective than other coatings in resisting abrasive and adhe-
sive wear. Further, hard coatings are expected to be com-
patible with the vane material, which is made of SKH51
Žhigh speed tool steel.. Therefore several hard coatings
with potential for improving the tribological characteristics
were selected and evaluated in this experiment. The coat-
ings tested were: TiN, TiAlN, WCrC Žtungsten carbide
carbon., DLC Ždiamond-like carbon. and ion nitriding
treatment. Also, a carbon vane material was tested for
reference purposes.
The wear characteristics of a coating can depend greatly
on the deposition method, In particular, physical vapor
deposition ŽPVD. generally seems to produce less distor-
tion of the substrate and a finer surface finish than other
methods due to the low deposition temperature involved.
Because the surface finish achieved with PVD allowed
elimination of a machining process after coating and be-
cause it offered more precise dimension control in a
system with very small clearances, it was selected as the
main coating process for this study.
A variety of manufacturing methods was used to gener-
ate various samples for the compressor vane wear study.
Titanium nitride ŽTiN. was deposited by two different
methods of Arc Ion Plating ŽTiNŽI.. and RF Magnetron
sputtering ŽTiNŽII.. in order to evaluate the effects of
deposition method. DLC coating was manufactured by
Dual Ion Beam sputtering, a method commonly used for
coating cutting tools. Ion nitriding, or Plasma nitriding was
also evaluated since recently it was reported that long-term
reliability was significantly improved by employing an ion
nitriding treatment on the crankshaft of the rotary compres-
sor w7x. The Carbon vane, which was mainly composed of
Al 4 C 3 , has been observed to prevent wear and scuffing
phenomena during frequent stop-and-start operation of the
compressor. However, its application as a vane material is
limited due to its high brittleness and low hardness. Some
pertinent data for the various coatings tested are given in

Table 1
Properties of various coatings and vane materials
Vane Hardness ŽHv. Roughness Žmm Ra. Coating thickness Žmm. Deposition method
Original 950 0.1658 – –
TiNŽI. 1900 0.1155 2 Arc ion plating
TiNŽII. 1600–1800 0.1770 1.5–2 RF magnetron sputtering
TiAIN 2700 0.3410 1.2 Arc ion plating
WCrC 1000 0.1538 2.4 Magnetron sputtering
DLC 2000 0.1802 2 Dual ion beam sputtering
Carbon vane 458 0.2686 – –
Ion nitriding 1150 0.2905 150–200 Pulse plasma nitriding
 H.C. Sung r Wear 221 (1998) 77–85
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of Falex wear test machine with high pressure chamber.
Table 1. Most of coatings and the data were supplied by
commercial surface coating companies.
3. Experimental method
3.1. Test apparatus
All tests in this study were conducted in a Falex
multi-specimen wear tester as a bench wear tester. In order
to simulate the operating condition of the real compressor,
a high pressure chamber which can sustain pressures up to
0.9 MPa was assembled into the wear tester. A schematic
diagram of the tester is given in Fig. 2. The temperature of
the chamber was raised using a cartridge heater located in
Fig. 3. Shape and dimension of vane and disk Žroller. sample.
79
the bottom plate and controlled by a microprocessor. To
prevent a sudden increase of the temperature inside the
chamber due to frictional heating during test, water was
circulated through the chamber wall.
The vane-on-disk geometry was used in the wear tester.
The disks were cut out from the cylindrical bar of the
roller material. The vane sample was also machined from
the same type of vane material as is used in the real
compressor in order to ensure the same mechanical proper-
ties. The coatings were applied only on the vane surface.
The vane Župper specimen. attached to the rotating spindle
was pressed against a stationary disk Žbottom specimen..
The vane material was made of SKH51 and had hardness
in the range of 850–950 Hv. The roller Ždisk. material was
made of Ni–Cr–Mo gray cast iron and had hardness in the
range of 440–600 Hv. The surface roughness of the disk
Fig. 4. Wear scar width of the vane tip for various coatings in R407C and
POE oil mixture, tested normal load of 440 N, speed of 350 rpm, 708C
and test duration of 10 h.
80 H.C. Sung r Wear 221 (1998) 77–85

Fig. 5. Friction coefficient for various coatings in R407C and POE oil
mixture, tested in normal load of 440 N, speed of 350 rpm, 708C and test
duration of 10 h.
Fig. 7. Wear scar width in R407C only, tested in normal load of 440 N,
speed of 70 rpm, 208C and test duration of 1 h.
was ground to 0.188 mm Ra, which is close to the original
roughness of the roller. The shape and dimensions of the
two specimens are shown in Fig. 3. speed and temperature were set to 350 rpm and 708C
which are the same as the real conditions. The test duration
3.2. Test procedure was 10 h. The oil used in this test is POE, which is made
of pentaerythritol alcohol and mono basic acid. In order to
Prior to testing, the specimen was ultrasonically cleaned exclude any effects due to additives, pure POE oil was
with acetone and assembled in the pressure chamber of the used, and its viscosity grade corresponds to ISO VG 68.
wear test apparatus. The chamber was filled with lubricant To better understand the wear resistance performance of
and evacuated to a pressure of about 10 kPa to eliminate the coatings, another set of wear tests was conducted in an
any gaseous impurities in the chamber. Then the refriger- R407C environment without oil. In the refrigerant-only
ant was charged to 0.9 MPa and allowed to dissolve in the wear test, normal loads of 440 N and 176 N were used.
lubricant for 1-h prior to test initiation. The pressure and Since the tests in refrigerant only generally cause more
temperature of the chamber were maintained at 0.9 MPa severe wear or scuffing in the early running of the test,
and 708C throughout the test. The calculated maximum much milder conditions of 70 rpm, 208C and 1-h test
contact load between the vane and the roller in the real
compressor was 295 N which corresponds to a maximum
contact stress of 1.577 GPa, and the maximum speed was
200 rpm Ž0.52 mrs.. In the vane-on-disk geometry of the
wear tester, these conditions correspond to 176 N of
normal load and 350 rpm by Hertz’s contact stress formu-
lae. Based on this data, 440 N of the normal load was
applied, which is 2.5 times higher than that of encountered
in the compressor in order to accelerate the wear rate. The

Fig. 8. Friction coefficient for various coatings in R407C and POE oil
mixture, tested in normal load of 176 N, speed of 70 rpm, 208C and test
duration of 1 h.

Fig. 9. Friction coefficient for various coatings in R407C and POE oil
Fig. 6. Wear scar width in R407C only, tested in normal load of 176 N, mixture, tested in normal load of 440 N, speed of 70 rpm, 708C and test
speed of 70 rpm, 208C and test duration of 1 h. duration of 1 h.
 H.C. Sung r Wear 221 (1998) 77–85 81

duration were selected so that wear could be easily mea-
sured. The friction force was continuously recorded
throughout the test by means of a torque sensor attached to
the shaft of the tester. Wear on the vane was calculated
from measurements of the wear scar width at the tip of the
vane using an optical microscope. The wear on the disk
surface was too small to be measured directly. However,
by wear particle ferrography analysis, wear amounts could
be estimated roughly. The nature of the wear surface
morphology and wear mechanisms was investigated with a

Fig. 10. SEM pictures of the wear on the vane tip for various coatings. Ža. TiNŽI.; Žb. TinŽII.; Žc. TiAIN; Žd. WCrC; Že. DLC; Žf. ion nitriding in R407C
and POE oil mixture tested in normal load of 440 N, speed of 350 rpm, 708C, and tested duration of 10 h.
82 H.C. Sung r Wear 221 (1998) 77–85
scanning electron microscope ŽSEM. and energy disper-
sive X-ray spectroscopy ŽEDX. for chemical analysis.
4. Results
4.1. Test under refrigerantr lubricant mixture
The wear scar widths for various coated vanes are
shown in Fig. 4. All coated vanes showed 1r4 or 1r2 as
much wear as the uncoated original vane. The amount of
wear of the coatings was the least for TiAlN, somewhat
greater for WCrC, and the highest for the DLC coating.
The carbon vane showed severe wear which was even
higher than the original vane. The measured values of
coefficient of the friction are given in Fig. 5. Variations in
friction during individual tests tended to be quite small.
The friction coefficient was lowest for the ion nitrided
vane and low for WCrC. TiAlN, which showed the least
wear, produced the highest friction. Also the Carbon vane,
which was expected to show low friction, produced very
high friction. From the above results, it was noted that
WCrC and TiN showed somewhat better wear and friction
performance than the others tested.
4.2. Test under refrigerant only
As stated earlier, another set of wear tests was con-
ducted in refrigerant-only R407C environments under the
normal loads of 176 N and 440 N, respectively. Wear scar
widths for the coated vanes are given in Fig. 6 for the 18
kg load test and Fig. 7 for the 440 N load test. For the 176
N load test, the wear results for each coating showed
trends similar to those tested in a refrigerantroil environ-
ment. TiAlN showed the least wear; WCrC showed
slightly greater wear, while scuffing occurred in the case
of the DLC coating vane. However, the differences in
degree of wear among the coated vanes in the 176 N load
test were not significant. On the other hand, the differences
of the wear amount were quite distinct in the 440 N load
Fig. 11. Worn surface of TiAIN coating vane in refrigerant only, tested in
normal load of 176 N, speed of 70 rpm, 208C and test duration of 1 h.
Fig. 12. SEM image of worn surface of the disk sliding against WCrC
coating vane.
test. In this test, WCrC coating showed the least wear and
TiNŽI. showed somewhat greater wear. The TiAlN coat-
ing, which showed the least wear in the previous tests
produced scuffing in this test. Scuffing also occurred in the
case of ion nitrided and DLC coated surfaces. TiNŽII. still
showed greater wear than TiNŽI.. In this study, scuffing
indicates the occurrence of severe wear mainly on the disk
specimen followed by the sudden increase of friction and
vibration of the test system.
The coefficients of friction for 176 N load test and 440
N load test are given in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively. Even
though all coated vanes showed lower friction values than
the original vane, the friction coefficients of the hard
coatings TiNŽI., TiNŽII. and TiAlN are still high, and they
increased gradually with time. When the load was in-
creased to 440 N, TiAlN coated and ion nitrided vanes
produced very high friction and led to scuffing. On the
other hand, the friction coefficients observed with the
WCrC and carbon vanes were very low and showed only
slight changes throughout the tests at both loads. In partic-
ular, it was observed that the value of the coefficient of
friction for the WCrC coating was consistently the lowest
and almost the same regardless of load and environment.
Also, it was apparent that the Carbon vane reduces friction
more effectively in dry or gaseous environments than in
wet environments.
4.3. Analysis of worn surfaces
The worn surfaces of the sample vane tips were exam-
ined with optical microscope, SEM and EDX. SEM pic-
tures of wear scar for each coated vane are shown in Fig.
10. Worn surfaces typically were smoother than the initial
surfaces. For the TiNŽI. coating, as shown in Fig. 10a, the
worn surface is very smooth. The TiNŽII. coating had a
worn surface quite different from that of TiNŽI. coating, as
shown in Fig. 10b. The worn surface showed extensive
plastic deformation, along with formation of the deep and
 H.C. Sung r Wear 221 (1998) 77–85
Fig. 13. EDX spectrum of worn surface of the disk at ‘2’ and ‘3’ position.
wide grooves. EDX analysis revealed no trace of Ti inside
the groove, indicating the coating was spalled off. It can be
seen that the TiNŽII. coating, which was deposited by a
sputtering method did not seem to have proper wear
resistance probably due to the poorer mechanical proper-
ties likely related to hardness and adhesion strength. The
worn surface of the TiAlN coating was characterized by
irregular and sharp edges of contact along with small
grooves ŽFig. 10c.. For the test under refrigerant only,
relatively large wear particles appeared to be embedded in
the edge of contact area as shown in Fig. 11. Those hard
wear particles entrapped between contact surfaces may
have contributed to high friction. EDX analysis also re-
vealed extensive coating removal.
On the other hand, smoothening of the asperities of the
worn surface was observed for the WCrC coating ŽFig.
10d., which showed good wear and friction performance in
Fig. 14. Worn surface of WCrC coating vane tested in normal load of
440 N, speed of 350 rpm, 708C and test duration of 10 h.
83
this test. One explanation may be that the surface defects
or asperities developed during the deposition process are
polished away during the run-in period by a micro-abra-
sion mechanism w8x. As the number of sliding cycles
increases, the surface finish gradually becomes more pol-
ished. The good tribological performance of WCrC coat-
ing can also be related to the generation of a protective
film between the mating surfaces during sliding, which is
formed mainly by tribochemical reactions or mechanical
wear w9x.
A SEM picture of the worn disk surface from an
experiment with WCrC in this study is shown in Fig. 12.
Patches of transferred and smeared out material as well as
more loosely attached wear debris are observed. EDX
analysis was performed for this surface. In the ‘1’ location
in Fig. 12, EDX spectrum was found to match with that of
the original disk indicating that no film is formed on the
Fig. 15. Sectional view of worn surface of ion nitriding vane, tested in
normal load of 440 N, speed of 350 rpm, 708C and test duration of 10 h.
84 H.C. Sung r Wear 221 (1998) 77–85
surface. However, in the ‘2’ and ‘3’ location, which
appears gray and black, high carbon and W peaks are
detected as shown in Fig. 13, indicating that the disk
surface is covered by a film. Those observations indicate
that the films formed on the disk surface are more or less
discontinuous and composed of carbon and Wrcarbon.
Under stable sliding conditions, the contact between the
vane and the disk turns into the contact of WCrC with a
carbon film or WCrC with a Wrcarbon film, which may
explain the low friction and wear. However, the plate-like
spalling of coating in some limited areas was observed as
shown in Fig. 14. This appears to be a kind of delamina-
tion wear or fatigue wear which is caused by propagation
of cracks running parallel to the surface, at the interface
Fig. 16. SEM picture of the wear debris for various coatings in R407C
and POE oil mixture, tested in normal load of 440 N, speed of 350 rpm,
708C and test duration of 10 h.
between the coating layer and substrate. Such coating
failure is generally attributed to poor adhesion between the
coating and the substrate.
The worn surface in the case of the DLC coating is
relatively smooth and mildly abraded ŽFig. 10e.. However,
EDX results indicated significant removal of the coating
layer. A detailed investigation of the wear mechanism
could not be undertaken due to scuffing during the refrig-
erant-only test. Ion nitriding did not show sharp edges of
the contact or embedded wear debris on the worn surface.
The SEM picture of the vane cross-section shown in Fig.
15 exhibits several cracks perpendicular to the sliding
direction in the nitride surface layer, suggesting that dura-
bility of ion nitride layer may not be sufficient to sustain
cyclic contact stress.
4.4. Wear debris analysis
Wear characteristics for the coated vanes were also
investigated by wear debris analysis. Wear debris was
separated from the lubricant by a ferrogram maker and
examined with SEM. The SEM pictures of wear debris for
some samples are shown in Fig. 16. In the cases of TiNŽI.
and TiNŽII. coatings large, flattened, plastically deformed
wear debris was observed. On the other hand, WCrC and
ion nitriding produced small wear debris particles. Espe-
cially in the case of the DLC coating, a heavy deposit of
fine particles was observed. This is a typical ferrographic
pattern of wear debris when corrosive wear occurs. As
stated earlier, POE oil tends to form acid by hydrolysis
action, causing corrosion of the metal parts or corrosive
wear between contacting parts in the compressors. At this
time, however, it is not clear why corrosive wear is
dominant particularly for the DLC coating. In any case, the
existence of particles in the refrigeration cycle introduces
critical reliability issues such as capillary tube clogging or
seizure between the shaft and the bearing of the compres-
sor.
5. Discussion
Tribological performance and properties of each coating
can be changed using different set-up conditions during
deposition. Hardness, adhesion force to substrate, corro-
sion resistance, etc., will all be affected by the method
used, and these properties all, in turn, affect the friction
and wear properties of the vane and roller pair. These
effects must be considered in the choice of surface modifi-
cation method. The importance of several coating proper-
ties in reducing these mechanisms of wear is considered
further below.
Coating hardness. High surface hardness is often thought
to reduce adhesive and abrasive wear. However, as shown,
very hard coatings such as TiN, TiAlN and DLC produced
 H.C. Sung r Wear 221 (1998) 77–85
high friction and severe wear of the roller surface, generat-
ing a large amount of wear particles.
Coating adhesion to substrate. High adhesion force of
the coating to the substrate is also important for minimiz-
ing abrasive wear. Once the coating is spalled off, the hard
coating fragments will trigger severe abrasion or cause
seizure of the sliding parts.
Capacity for tribo-film formation. In addition to proper
hardness and adhesion properties, the ability of a coated
sliding pair to form a tribo-film tends to improve tribologi-
cal performance. In this study, the WCrC coating pro-
duced a durable protective film on the mating surface
which reduced friction significantly, thereby decreasing the
chance of severe wear.
Corrosion resistance of the coating and mating surface
should be considered even though it was not investigated
in detail in this study. In particular, the possible chemical
reactions between the coating surface and fluorine or
hydrogen atoms in R407C refrigerant and their influences
on the tribological performance should be studied care-
fully.
6. Conclusions
In an attempt to reduce the wear and friction between
the vane and the roller of a compressor which uses
R407CrPOE oil mixture, several hard coatings were ap-
plied on sample vane surfaces and their performance was
evaluated with an accelerated wear tester. The results can
be summarized as follows.
Ž1. Very hard coatings such as TiAlN and DLC are not
suitable as coating materials since they wear quickly on
the roller and produce high friction.
Ž2. The TiN coated vane showed good wear resistance
properties, especially when deposited by ion plating in-
stead of magnetron sputtering. However, it produced high
friction.
Ž3. The WCrC coating tested showed the best tribolog-
ical performances among the coatings tested, probably by
forming a durable tribo-film on the mating surface.
Ž4. Ion nitriding is not suitable for vane surfaces since
durability of the ion nitride layer is not good enough to
sustain the cyclic stress occurring in the vane–roller con-
tact.
Ž5. In order to develop a proper coating material for the
vane, at least the following tribological characteristics of
85
the coating are required: optimal hardness; good adhesion
between coating and vane to prevent extensive removal of
the coating layer, and durable and easily shearable tribo-
film forming capability.
7. Biography
Sung Hoon Choa is a senior manager at Samsung
Cooperated Technical Operation. He earned his MS in
mechanical engineering from the Seoul National Univer-
sity in Korea and PhD from the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor. He has worked mainly in the field of tribol-
ogy. His research interest involves wear and lubrication
mechanism in engine and compressor, wear resistant coat-
ing. He is presently working on several tribological issues
in Magnetic Storage Device.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their appreciation to
the Rotary Compressor Development Team and the Pro-
duction Technology Center of Samsung Electronics for
their help in conducting this experimental work.
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