Improvement of adhesion properties of glass prepared using SiC-deposited graphite mold via low-temperature chemical vapor deposition

Compression glass molding is a promising technique for mass production of near net-shaped, high-precision, and low-cost optical glass elements. However, the glass molding process causes the damage of glass and the mold during demolding because of the chemical or physical adhesion of the glass to the mold. To overcome this limitation, graphite molds are used owing to their good lubrication and easy machining. However, graphite materials show rapid oxidation at high temperatures in the presence of oxygen. Therefore, in this study, a thin SiC coating layer was deposited on the graphite mold using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to utilize the lubrication properties of graphite and the anti-oxidation properties of SiC. The specimen obtained using the low-temperature CVD method showed high carbon content and good lubrication properties than that obtained using the high-temperature CVD method.