VDI 2840:2005-11

The subject of the present VDI guideline is carbon films which are deposited by the vacuum deposition method (PVD or CVD). These modern coating systems extend from extremely hard diamond films at one end of the scale, passing through a wide variety of mostly hydrogenated amorphous carbon films before reaching soft graphite films at the other end. This guideline pursues two aims: firstly, it should provide a uniform classification and nomenclature for carbon films; secondly, it should enable the prospective user of coated workpieces to make a preliminary selection of suitable carbon film types. Essentially this guideline deals with those coatings which are produced on an industrial scale. This means we must, for example, exclude a-C:X and ta- C:X films (X = Si, O, F, N, B, and so on) which are yet under industrial development or which currently have only a very limited application.