Tribological characterization of selected hard coatings

Abstract: Hard coatings are often used for protection of tool surfaces due to coating properties like low friction and high wear resistance. Even though many of the hard coatings have been tested for wear, it is important to try new wear test setups to fully understand tribological mechanisms and the potential of hard coatings. Few experiments have been performed with dual-coated systems where the sliding contact surfaces are coated with the same, or different, hard coating. The dual-coated system could be the solution to many new technical devices and perhaps a further improvement of conventional coated systems. In this thesis, the wear tests of dual-coated systems were performed in dry reciprocating sliding mode at room temperature. This, quite off the ordinary, wear test setup was performed to study selected hard coatings and set focus on wear mechanisms in forthcoming future surface coating application areas like MEMS and orthopedic implants. Wear tests of four different PVD hard coatings, CrN, TiAlN, WC/C and diamond-like coating (DLC) were performed in a slider-on-flat-surface (SOFS) tribo-tester with reciprocation sliding mode at room temperature and dry sliding with TiAlN coated counter body. Wear mechanisms and the amount of wear were estimated, by investigation of the wear scars produced in SOFS, by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical profilometer (OP). Typical wear mechanisms found for coated surfaces in reciprocation sliding contact were crack formation, surface flattening for shorter sliding distance, elongation of surface defects, debris and thin film formation. Two types of film formation were found: tribo-oxidation film and formation of a self-lubrication film. The tribo-oxidation was the most evident for CrN and the formation of a self-lubrication film was revealed for DLC, where smearing of asperities were the initiation of the process. The DLC coatings showed lowest friction coefficient and worn volume of all the selected hard coatings. Adhesion measurements were performed for all coatings by AFM. Both the unworn and worn surface of each coating were investigated and two coatings, DLC and TiAlN, showed low adhesion forces, which indicated promising properties for small scale devices like MEMS and NEMS with coated, non-sticking, surfaces.