Comparison of Curvature and X-Ray Methods for Measuring of Residual Stresses in Hard PVD Coatings

Abstract

Physical Vapour Deposition and PVD coatings are designed for several applications, from industrial to biomedical. Residual stresses, arising during coating deposition, have important effect on the coating’s service life as their influence to the mechanical and tribological properties. Our aim was to investigate the residual stresses in five different PVD coatings (TiN, TiCN, TiAlN, TiAlN, nc-(AlTi) N/α -Si3N4) (presence of the Ti as adhesion layer) by the layer growing curvature method and the X-ray diffraction techniques using a plate and a strip as the substrate. Residual stresses were compressive and very large (2.98 - 7.24) GPa in all coatings and comparable in TiN, TiAlN, TiAlN coatings in the case of both methods. The magnitude of residual stresses is influenced by intrinsic strain in the case of layer growth rather than by thermal stress.