Compressors

Compressors may preferably include a swash plate coupled to a drive shaft, so that the swash plate will rotate in response to rotation of the drive shaft. A piston is preferably disposed within a cylinder bore. A shoe preferably couples the piston to the swash plate, so the piston will reciprocate within the cylinder bore in order to compress a refrigerant in response to rotation of the swash plate. The shoe preferably comprises a main body, a metallic hard layer at least partially disposed on the main body and an anti-friction layer at least partially disposed on the metallic hard layer. The main body preferably comprises a spherical surface portion and a substantially flat surface portion and comprises aluminum. The metallic hard layer preferably has a hardness of at least HV 300 based upon the Vickers hardness scale and is disposed on at least one of the spherical surface portion and the substantially flat surface portion. The anti-friction layer preferably comprises a metal and a solid lubricating agent. The solid lubricating agent may be, for example, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), boron nitride (BN), tungsten disulfide (WS2), graphite or polytetrafluoroethylene. The metal within the anti-friction layer may be, for example, nickel phosphorus, nickel boron, nickel phosphorus boron tungsten, cobalt phosphorus or hard chromium plating