Multipass Sliding Wear Behavior of TiAlN Coatings Using a Spherical Indenter: Effect of Coating Parameters and Duplex Treatment

Abstract

The properties and performance of thin ceramic coatings are largely affected by three factors: (1) deposition parameters, (2) pretreatments applied to substrates before coating deposition, and (3) physical arrangements about the deposition instrument such as arrangement of the target to substrate distance (TSD). In this study, the structural, mechanical, and tribological properties of magnetron-sputtered TiAlN coatings deposited on hardened and nitrided AISI H13 steel substrates and silicon wafers at different nitrogen partial pressures of 0.3, 0.6, and 1.2 mTorr; substrate bias voltages of 0, −100, and −200 V; and TSDs of 6, 11, 16, and 21 cm using a compound Ti_0.5Al_0.5 target were investigated and the combination effect of all factors was studied in detail. A CSEM-Revetest scratch tester was adapted for wear tests as a multipass sliding wear tester and Al₂O₃ ceramic balls were used as a counter material for TiAlN repetitive sliding. A 2⁴ full-factorial experimental design was conducted to screen the significant factors influencing the wear resistance of the films. It was found that the hardness and mechanical properties of the coatings increased at low nitrogen pressure, high bias voltage, and short TSD. Furthermore, duplex treatment and nitrogen pressure were determined to be crucial parameters.

KEY WORDS:

• Titanium Aluminium Nitride
• Magnetron Sputtering
• Duplex Treatment
• Multipass Sliding Wear

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors thank İ. Güneş for helping with the wear analysis carried out at AKÜ.