Monitoring of Wear Characteristics of TiN and TiAlN Coatings at Long Sliding Distances

TiN and TiAlN thin hard coatings have been widely applied on machine components and cutting tools to increase their wear resistance. These coatings have different wear behaviors, and determination of their wear characteristics in high-temperature and high-speed applications has great importance in the selection of suitable coating material to application. In this article, the wear behavior of single-layer TiN and TiAlN coatings was investigated at higher sliding speed and higher sliding distances than those in the literature. The coatings were deposited on AISI D2 cold-worked tool steel substrates using a magnetron sputtering system. The wear tests were performed at a sliding speed of 45 cm/s using a ball-on-disc method, and the wear area was investigated at seven different sliding distances (36–1,416 m). An Al₂O₃ ball was used as the counterpart material. The wear evolution was monitored using a confocal optical microscope and surface profilometer after each sliding test. The coefficient of friction and coefficient of wear were recorded with increasing sliding distance. It was found that the wear rate of the TiAlN coating decreases with sliding distance and it is much lower than that of TiN coating at longer sliding distance. This is due to the Al₂O₃ film formation at high temperature in the contact zone. Both coatings give similar coefficient of friction data during sliding with a slight increase in that of the TiAlN coating at high sliding distances due to the increasing alumina formation. When considering all results, the TiAlN coating is more suitable for hard machining applications.