MECHANICAL AND TRIBOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF LOW-TEMPERATURE DEPOSITED PVD TIN COATINGS

Three potential processes for TiN deposition at low temperatures (high current density plasma beam evaporation (200-320-degrees-C), high cur rent density plasma beam activated electron beam evaporation (220-degr ees-C) and high current density plasma beam assisted sputtering (220-d egrees-C)) are evaluated with respect to the resulting surface topogra phy, hardness, scratch resistance and abrasive wear resistance of the deposited coatings. TiN coatings deposited using three different proce sses operating at standard temperature (450-degrees-C) were used as re ferences. It is shown that it is possible to obtain low-temperature Ti N coatings with retained properties (hardness, scratch and abrasion re sistance) as compared with TiN coatings produced at standard temperatu res. The results also indicate that, at low temperatures, activated ev aporation seems to yield coatings with better mechanical and tribologi cal properties than sputtering. An important observation is that the p erformance ranking of the investigated coatings differs with the param eters measured. This, in turn, implies that several methods must be ut ilized for evaluation of a candidate coating-substrate composite for a given application.