Application of ta-C Coating on WC Mold to Molded Glass Lens

We investigated the application of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) coatings to fabricate a glass lens manufactured using a glass molding process (GMP). In this work, ta-C coatings with different thickness (50, 100, 150 and 200 nm) were deposited on a tungsten carbide (WC-Co) mold using the X-bend filter of a filtered cathode vacuum arc. The effects of thickness on mechanical and tribological properties of the coating were studied. These ta-C coatings were characterized by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, nano-indentation measurements, Raman spectrometry, Rockwell-C tests, scratch tests and ball on disc tribometer tests. The nano-indentation measurements showed that hardness increased with an increase in coating thickness. In addition, the G-peak position in the Raman spectra analysis was right shifted from 1520 to $1586cm^{-1}$, indicating that the $sp^3$ content increased with increasing thickness of ta-C coatings. The scratch test showed that, compared to other coatings, the 100-nm-thick ta-C coating displayed excellent adhesion strength without delamination. The friction test was carried out in a nitrogen environment using a ball-on-disk tribometer. The 100-nm-thick ta-C coating showed a low friction coefficient of 0.078. When this coating was applied to a GMP, the life time, i.e., shot counts, dramatically increased up to 2,500 counts, in comparison with Ir-Re coating.