Some Tribological Aspects of the Duplex Coatings With Additional Ion Bombardment

A duplex surface treatment involves the sequential application of two surface technologies to produce a surface composition with combined properties. A typical duplex process involves plasma nitriding and the coating treatment of steels. In the paper are presented characteristics of hard coatings, type TiN, produced by classic technology PVD (physical vapour deposition) and IBAD (ion beam assisted deposition). The synthesis of the TiN film by IBAD has been performed by irradiation of Ar ions. The evolution of the microstructure from porous and columnar grains to densel packed grains is accompanied by changes in mechanical and physical properties (1). Subsequent ion implantation was provided with N ions. Wear tests were carried out using a pin-on-ring geometry with no lubrication.. Varieties of analytic techniques were used for characterization, such as scratch test, calo test, SEM, XRD and EDAX. X-ray diffraction studies were undertaken in an attempt to determine the phases present, and perhaps an estimate of grain size from line broadening. The results were correlated with properties determined from mechanical and tribological characterisation.