IMPROVEMENT OF FATIGUE RESISTANCE OF PVD THIN-FILMS FOR TEXTILE MACHINES BY FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS

In a paper presented at the ICMCTF'93 it was shown that textile machin e elements are an interesting field of application for physical vapour deposition coatings. Pre-investigations have provided evidence of the considerable advantages of thin films for textile processes. A wide r ange of applications in this field is limited owing to the low fatigue resistance of these coatings. There are several ways of improving the fatigue strength. The coating material, the substrate material, the c oating structure and the process parameters can be varied on a large s cale. In order to minimize extensive and protracted testing a finite e lement model has been built up to investigate the influence of the par ameters mentioned before. Results of the FEM analysis will be presente d. This method and the information available are applicable not only t o textile machine elements but to every field where thin films on ferr ous and nonferrous alloys must provide resistance against extreme dyna mic stressing.