Micro-Scale Abrasive Wear Testing of CrN Duplex PVD Coating on Pre-Nitrided Tool Steel

Abstract

Specific wear rates were calculated from a series of micro-scale abrasive tests by means of the calotte-grinding method. The tested material was a CrN coating deposited by arc evaporation on ionnitrided AISI H13 steel. Characterizations included: phase analysis, chemical composition, metallography, microhardness, micro-scratch resistance and nano-indentation hardness. On wear testing, the counter body was a 30 mm diameter steel ball rotating at a tangential speed of 9.42 m/min and normal load of 0.54 N. The abrasive was a mono-crystalline diamond micro abrasive paste, 1 micrometer grit. Wear volumes were calculated by measuring the wear scars at various test intervals. In non-perforating tests, Archard's wear equation was directly employed for calculating coating wear rate as the slope of the linear least square data fit. In perforating tests, Allsopp's method was employed for the simultaneous determination of coating and substrate wear rates, from the slope and intercept values of the linear least square data fit. Coating specific wear rate values obtained from both non-perforating and perforating tests were very consistent, with a relative difference within 6%. Relative errors in specific wear rate values were estimated to be of the order of 0.05 for the coating and 0.2 for the substrate.

Sliding wear behavior of duplex coatings with different plasma nitride layers and a Cr‐Al‐Ti‐B‐N coating

“…[32][33][34][35] Previous investigations concerning tribological features of duplex treated tool steels mainly focus on high-speed tool steels, for example, AISI M2, 16,21 and hot-worked tool steels, for example, AISI H13. 36,37 However, cold-worked steels have only been investigated in detail by a few authors to date with regard to duplex surface treatment and the corresponding tribological properties. 1,7,8 However, none of these investigations examined the influence of a CL present after nitriding on the performance of the duplex system, as the CL was either removed before the PVD process 8 or was not formed during PN.…”

“…Previous investigations concerning tribological features of duplex treated tool steels mainly focus on high‐speed tool steels, for example, AISI M2, 16,21 and hot‐worked tool steels, for example, AISI H13 36,37 . However, cold‐worked steels have only been investigated in detail by a few authors to date with regard to duplex surface treatment and the corresponding tribological properties 1,7,8 .…”

Impact-sliding wear properties of PVD CrN and WC/C coatings

“…These studies simulated and evaluated the wear behaviour and dynamic loads of PVD coatings in industrial applications. However, previous studies [6,18,[29][30][31][32][33] have focused on the tribological performance evaluation of PVD coatings for a single motion or load conditions and the described methods are not suitable for determining the tribological properties of PVD coatings under complex motion or loading conditions.…”