Composition, morphology and mechanical properties of sputtered TiAlN coating

Abstract

TiAlN coating was deposited on the tungsten carbide cutting tool by using DC magnetron sputtering system to study the influence of substrate bias and nitrogen flow rate on the composition, morphology and mechanical properties. The negatively substrate bias and nitrogen flow rate was varied from about −79 to −221 V and 30 sccm to 72 sccm, respectively. The coating composition and roughness were characterized by using SEM/EDX and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), respectively. The dynamic ultra micro hardness tester was used to measure the mechanical properties. The coating hardness increases to about 10-12 GPa with an increase of the negatively substrate bias up to − 200 V and it tend to decrease with an increase in nitrogen flow rate up to 70 sccm. The increase of hardness follows the increase of Ti and N content and rms coating roughness.