DLC on the Inside of Pipes: an Important Advance

Diamond thin films are making important contributions to our way of life; lowering wear in engines, rotary seals, cutting tools, improving efficiency (and reducing polution) in many economic domains. One of the best applications for DLC that I have run across is on the inside of pipes, providing wear, corrosion and friction benefits. These benefits applied just to the oil and gas industries, which use millions of miles of pipe, will be enormous. Sub-One Technology has a great solution for a significant need and has made DLC on the inside of pipes an industrial reality. Their results: A novel hollow cathode plasma immersion ion processing method is developed and used to deposit silicon containing DLC-Si inside a one foot long 1020CS pipe with 1.75 inch diameter. A layered coating structure was developed, including an improved adhesion layer with good mixing of substrate and coating constituents, to improve adhesion of the coating while a DLC top layer provided excellent wear and friction characteristics. Data showed that such a coating provides excellent corrosion protection to internal surfaces of pipes. Application of this coating technology is in industries such as oil and gas, tribological and corrosion performance improvement is expected for components such as pump barrels, downhole pipes, drilling fixtures, and drilling bores, etc. http://www.azom.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=4125