Nanoscale coatings

Ames Laboratory scientist Bruce Cook is leading an effort to develop nanoscale coatings to boost the energy efficiency and extend the life of pump rotors and industrial cutting tools.

The coating Cook is investigating is a boron-aluminium-magnesium (BAM) ceramic alloy called AlMgB14 that he discovered with Alan Russell, a fellow Ames Laboratory researcher and Iowa State University (ISU) professor of Materials Science and Engineering, about eight years ago.

Working with ISU materials scientist Alan Constant, Cook’s team is using pulsed laser deposition to deposit a thin layer of the alloy on hydraulic pump vanes and tungsten carbide cutting tools.

Cook is also working with Eaton Corporation, a manufacturer of fluid power equipment, using another, more commercial deposition technique known as magnetron sputtering, to lay down a wear-resistant coating.