COATING AND INTERFACE CHARACTERIZATION BY DEPTH-SENSING INDENTATION EXPERIMENTS

The basic principles of coating and interface characterization by an e nergetic evaluation of depth-sensing indentation measurements are summ arized and presented together with a review of recent experimental res ults. The considered coating-substrate systems are ceramic-like coatin gs, such as TiN on less hard substrates such as high speed steel. Effe cts of internal compressive stresses of the coatings on the results of the energetic evaluation are illustrated by experimental results. Int ernal stress, hardness equivalent, coating thickness and a specific th reshold energy for interface deformation are discussed as parameters f or the quantitative design of hard coating architectures.