Development of PVD—TiAlN/a‐C Nanocomposite Coating for Pressure Die Casting Applications

In die casting, soldering of the core pin surface is mainly responsible for dimensional tolerance failure of products. A newly designed protective coating for die casting, consisting of TiAlN and amorphous carbon (a-C) with low soldering of magnesium, has been developed by the deposition of reactive cosputtering of TiAl and graphite targets using a UBM sputtering system. Structure analysis by GAXRD, HRTEM, laser Raman spectroscopy, and XPS revealed that the TiAlN/a-C coating has a nanocomposite structure consisting of a complicated mixture of nanocrystalline Ti-Al-N phase and a-C phase. Application of this coating to core pin for magnesium die casting demonstrated the lower tendency to adherence of magnesium alloy than TiAlN coatings and longer lifetime with a total number of ∼276 000 injections.

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