Influence of incorporation of Cr and Y on the wear performance of TiAlN coatings at elevated temperatures

Abstract High temperature, wear-resistant coatings grown by combined steered arc/unbalanced magnetron deposition techniques were tribologically characterized. These coatings are improvements on TiAlN standard processes, including multilayering with CrN and incorporation of yttrium. Commercially available arc-deposited coatings of TiN and TiAlN were taken as reference. Oscillatory sliding tribological tests were performed in the temperature range 400–900°C. This investigation demonstrates that these new coatings significantly outperform the commercial ones. Interestingly, the diffusion barrier effect of the incorporated yttrium becomes particularly important for testing temperatures exceeding 800°C. This property of TiAlCrYN makes this type of film extremely suitable for hard metal cutting operations, such as dry machining of die steel.

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