Micromechanical and Tribological Properties of Nanostructured Carbonitride Coatings Deposited by PVD Technique

Abstract

Nanostructured smart coatings (NSC) based on the TiAlSi-CN composite structure elements were deposited using reactive high-power physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique. The advanced modular deposition system included up to 8 high-power magnetron sputtering devices (MSD) allowing operate them simultaneously and exceed power density of 120 W/cm2 within each device erosion zone. The novel designed NSC on bearing steel 100Cr6 substrates demonstrated enhanced mechanical and tribological properties comparably with bearing steel ones required for multifunctional high-tech applications. The deposited NSC containing TiAlSi-CN nanoparticles strengthened by elemental additives Cr and Nb exhibited microhardness as high as 2500 HV values in comparison with 750 HV of 100Cr6 steel substrates. Load-displacement curves obey Meyer’s power-law surprisingly well because power-trendline fitted ones by R-squared value of 0.9999 for all the film-samples. Tribological properties were measured under dry friction conditions between the bearing steel ball of Ø 6 mm and the film-samples’ flat surface. Coefficient of friction (CoF) ranges between 0.22-0.56 depending on a sample and load. Tribotracks worn under the friction indenter were too shallow to evaluate them by Mitutoyo profilometer SJ-500. Therefore, the wear rate was estimated as ball wear of the friction indenter.

Tribological and Mechanical Properties of the Nanostructured Superlattice Coatings with Respect to Surface Texture

“…The NSC samples were deposited onto bearing steel disk-shaped substrates (∅30 × 4 mm) made of 100Cr6 using the HiPIPMS technique. The HiPIPMS was implemented on the Thin Film Modular Deposition System (TF-MDS) [33,34]. The TF-MDS had four cross-configured workstations equipped with magnetron sputtering devices (MSD), up to 8 MSDs altogether (Figure 1).…”