JPH0579069A - Water faucet member and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To maintain a good sliding property over a long period of time in a state of requiring no grease composed of the conventional silicone as its main ingredient. CONSTITUTION:On each sliding surface of metal or ceramics valves 1, 2 constituting a faucet, first at least more than one type of thin films being selected out of metal or the carbide, nitride and carbo-nitride are formed as much as at least one layer on one side or both surfaces 1a, 2a of two surface constituting this slidging surface, setting it down an inclined film. Subsequently a thin film such as a diamond-form carbon film (otherwise called i-carbon) is formed on this inclined film. Therefore, an improvement in adhesive force to the ceramics valve surface of this diamond-form carbon film (i-C film) can be heightened so sharply. In addition, this diamond-form carbon film is so strongly formed on the valve sliding surface, and even under the serious service condition, no grease is required, thus a long-lived faucet valve is manufacturable.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a faucet valve member capable of maintaining good slidability for a long period of time, and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, water faucet valves are mainly made of fine ceramics, especially alumina which can be manufactured at low cost, due to their excellent wear resistance, low strain due to heat, and excellent chemical corrosion resistance. Valves that have become popular are rapidly becoming popular. Such valves include those that can supply hot water or water independently and stop water, and those that mix hot water and water with one valve. And the sliding surface of these valves is normally made to prevent water leakage.
It is mirror-finished, and grease containing silicon as a main component is applied to improve operability.

[0003]

However, since the faucet valve is made of ceramics, a big problem has occurred. As described above, the grease whose main component is silicon is applied to the sliding surface of the ceramic valve.

The role of this grease is that, in the case of a valve which is composed of only ceramics and is not coated with grease, a phenomenon called so-called valve sticking occurs, which is called a linking phenomenon or a jumping phenomenon, and a squeaking noise is generated during operation. The phenomenon occurs such that the operation torque is significantly increased or the operation torque is significantly increased, and in a severe case, the phenomenon of sticking and non-sliding can occur.

However, even if grease is applied to the sliding surface,
Grease leaks out at the same time when water or hot water is discharged,
The above-mentioned problems frequently occur, and the manufacturers of faucet valves have complained about them and have to deal with them. In order to solve these drawbacks, improvements have been made, for example, by providing a grease reservoir so that the grease can be maintained for a long period of time and devising the valve shape.However, these valves are usually used to prevent water leakage. It is crimped with a tightening torque of 200 kg / cm or more, and it is difficult to supply grease to the gap after the grease has flowed out, and there is no effective measure yet.

[0006] To such drawbacks of the conventional valve,
By providing a diamond-like carbon film (hereinafter abbreviated as i-C) on the surface of the sliding surface of the valve, it has succeeded in solving the conventionally used grease in an unnecessary state.

However, when the valve is used as a faucet valve, the fixed side disk and the movable side disk are used by being strongly pressed to prevent water leakage, and foreign matter such as sand mixed in tap water causes a film. There is a risk of damage, and there is a need to improve the adhesion strength between the ceramic valve and the i-C film.

[0008]

The present invention has excellent lubricity,
The present invention relates to an invention of a faucet valve member in which i-C having excellent wear resistance is more firmly adhered to the surface of a ceramic valve, and an invention of a manufacturing method thereof.

That is, according to the water faucet valve member of the present invention, one of the two surfaces forming the sliding surface of the sliding surface of the ceramic valve forming the water faucet, the water faucet, or both of them, or A thin film of a diamond-like carbon film (also called i-Carbon) is provided on both surfaces with at least one kind of thin film selected from metal or its carbide, nitride, and carbonitride being interposed. To do. Further, in the method for manufacturing a faucet valve member of the present invention, at least one or more thin films selected from a metal, a carbide thereof, a nitride thereof, or a carbonitride thereof are vapor-deposited on the surface of a ceramic valve constituting a faucet. It is characterized in that at least one layer is formed by the method described above to form a gradient film, and then a thin film of a diamond-like carbon film (also called i-Carbon) is formed on the gradient film.

In general, when vapor-depositing a target thin film on the surface of a ceramic valve, the vapor deposition temperature is high, the difference in thermal expansion between the ceramic valve and the thin film, and the internal strain that the thin film receives are the main causes. Adhesion is hindered. The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks by providing an inclined film as a strain absorbing material between these thin films and the ceramic valve.

As the method for forming the gradient film, there are vapor phase vapor deposition method, plating method, metallizing method and the like, but it is preferable to use the sputtering method because a thin film can be formed and vapor deposition at low temperature is possible. Further, when a metal thin film is used as the gradient film, Ti or the like having high corrosion resistance is preferable.

[0012]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples. The ceramic valves 1 and 2 of the water faucet shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 have alumina content of 92% and the balance of SiO ₂ and Mg.
It was made of a material composed of O and TiO ₂ . (Hereinafter,
The ceramic valve 1 having the shape shown in FIG. 1A is referred to as a “fixed side” and the ceramic valve 2 having the shape shown in FIG. 1B is referred to as a “movable side”. Then, it was polished and finished on a lapping machine and polished to a mirror surface.

A diamond-like carbon film is formed on the sliding surface of this alumina valve.
(Chemical Vapor Deposition) method and PVD (Physical V
apor Deposition) method, but this time, it was carried out by a magnetron sputtering method which is one of the PVD methods.

After setting the above-mentioned alumina valve as a treated product in the vacuum chamber, up to 5 × 10 ^-5 mbar,
Evacuated. Next, an argon gas was introduced into the camber, the pressure was kept almost constant at 1 × 10 ^-2 mbar, and a high frequency of 13.56 MHZ was applied to the processed product at an output of 2000 W into a grounded vacuum chamber to generate argon. A bombardment with argon ions in plasma was performed for 10 minutes to perform cleaning.

Next, the magnetron cathode was connected to a direct current power source to cause direct current discharge, and a titanium target mounted on the cathode surface was sputtered. As the discharge gas,
Argon gas was introduced at a pressure of 5 × 10 ⁻³ mbar, and nitrogen and acetylene were used as reactive gases. While ion-bonding the processed product, a high frequency of 250 to 350 W was applied to the processed product during this period to deposit a film. Nitrogen and acetylene, which are reactive gases, are composed of titanium metal, TiN, TiCN, TiN
The flow rate was adjusted and changed so as to form a so-called graded film of TiC.

Finally, when the nitrogen flow rate is set to zero and the acetylene flow rate is increased to a pressure of 7.5 × 10 ^-3 mbar, the surface of the titanium target is completely covered with graphite or diamond-like carbon film. By maintaining this state, the diamond-like carbon film was deposited on the treated product. The film thickness was 1.5 μm in total thickness, the gradient film was 0.5 μm, the diamond-like carbon film was 1.0 μm, and the deposition time was 35 minutes.

In the fixed side ceramic valve 1 of FIG. 1A and the movable side ceramic valve 2 of FIG. 1B, 1a and 2a are sliding surfaces, 3 is a water inlet, 4 is a hot water inlet, Reference numeral 5 is a spout, and 6 is a passage of hot and cold water mixture.

On the sliding surface of the valve manufactured by the above method,
An epoxy adhesive having a tensile shear strength of 80 Kgf / cm ² was applied, and a tensile test was conducted with the combinations shown in Table 1 below. (In Table 1, i-C means that the i-C film was provided on the sliding surface, and Al ₂ O ₃ means that the i-C film was not provided.)

[0019]

[Table 1]

In the comparative example, the i-C film was directly formed on the sliding surface of the ceramic valve.
Is an i-C film formed according to the present invention. As shown in the comparative example, the one in which the i-C film was directly formed on the valve surface showed only 32 Kgf / cm ² of strength, and the fracture was i-
It happens from the C film.

On the other hand, in the case of the i-C film formed by this method, the breakage is caused by the epoxy resin portion, and it can be concluded that the tensile shear strength is 90 Kgf / cm ² or more.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, a metal or ceramic valve is provided with at least one thin film selected from metal, its carbide, its nitride, or its carbonitride as an inclined film. , On top of that i
By forming the -C film, the adhesion of the i-C film to the ceramic valve is significantly improved. According to this method, the i-C film can be formed on the sliding surface of the valve with good adhesion, and a long-life faucet valve can be manufactured without grease even under severe use conditions.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 (A) is an explanatory perspective view of a fixed-side ceramic valve.

FIG. 1 (B) is an explanatory perspective view of a movable side ceramic valve.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a water faucet.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of an enlarged part of the water faucet valve member according to the method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 valve 2 valve 1a sliding surface 2a sliding surface 3 water inlet 4 hot water inlet 5 spout 6 hot water mixed water passage 7 bottom lid 8 faucet 9 hot water inflow pipe 10 water inflow pipe 11 rubber packing 12 plastic case with valve 13 Makeup cover 14 Control lever

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A sliding surface of a ceramic or metal valve that constitutes a faucet for hot water, water, or both, on one or both of the two surfaces constituting the sliding surface. , Diamond-like carbon film (also known as i-Carb
On), the water faucet valve member is characterized in that it is provided with at least one kind of thin film selected from metals or their carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides. 2. At least one or more thin films selected from metals, their carbides, their nitrides, or their carbonitrides are first formed on the surface of a ceramic valve constituting a water faucet by means of vapor deposition or the like. Then, this is used as a gradient film, and then a thin film of a diamond-like carbon film (also called i-Carbon) is formed on this gradient film, a method of manufacturing a faucet valve member.