Zirconia is a common tool in the ceramic engineer's toolbox, but have you ever heard of using diamonds? That's just what some researches are trying to use. Engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST in Braunschweig, Germany have created a material they've dubbed 'DiaCer,' which looks to offer superior wear-resistance and a low coefficient of friction.
Combining technical ceramics with diamonds makes sense since diamonds are incredibly hard, conduct heat well, and are mostly inert to chemical substances. By combining them with ceramics, there results an unsurpassed material resistant to heat, wear, corrosion, and chemicals. Researchers have found that adding a diamond coating to a ceramic pump extends the part's durability by a factor of 4 to 1,000. After being used to create several tons of wire, the test parts were barely worn at all.
Dr. Lothar Schäfer of the Fraunhofer Institute is confident. He's said,
“Using our process, we can apply a diamond layer of up to a half square meter in size. There‘s nothing else like it in the world. Ultimately, DiaCer is of interest for all components in machine construction that need strong resistance to wear."
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