Wear of ion-plated aluminium bronze coatings under arduous metal-forming conditions

The wear of aluminium bronze coatings deposited by the ion-plating process using a slug-fed resistively heated evaporator and various discharge intensities has been studied. The coating material was Cu-14Al-4Fe alloy, which is known to have good non-galling properties in sheet metal forming. The wear and galling behaviour of the coatings were studied by a plane-on-cylinder wear test and production-scale tube-collaring experiments. Coatings improved the life of the tools, and enhancement of the deposition discharge further improved the life of the coatings.