Structural and tribological properties of Ti-TiN coatings obtained with a vacuum arc

L. VACA; A. MÁRQUEZ; S. BRÜHL

Journal of Physics: Conference Series

IOP

Lugar: Bristol; Año: 2012 vol. 370 p. 1 - 7

1742-6596

In this work TiN and Ti-TiN bilayer coatings obtained with a vacuum arc on AISI 316 samples were proposed in order to improve hardness and tribological properties. The coatings were deposited with a DC cathodic arc running a 130 A current discharge between a Titanium cathode and the vacuum chamber employed as anode. The samples were placed 20 cm away from the cathode surface. TiN films were obtained employing a continuous nitrogen flux of ~ 20 sccm and a working pressure in the range of 3 10-2 Pa. The structural and tribological properties were characterized by means of an optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), scratch test and fretting. The film thickness was about 0.5μm. Ti-TiN coatings presented better adhesion than TiN coatings and improved the fretting fatigue life compared to the untreated steel.