Effect of loading rate and coating thickness on wear and adhesion during sliding indents of Si–C–N/glass coatings useful for automotive applications

Abstract

Automotive components involving glass are coated with hard materials for protection against, UV glaze, EM interference, abrasion, and thermal shock. Thermally resistant nanocomposite hard Si–C–N coatings deposited on glass for that purpose, where subject to scratch testing to check the damage tolerance and wearability. The change in loading rate and coating thickness showed variation in adhesion strength and wear, The Boussinesq, Hans and Blister stress distribution beneath the indenter had on effect of the failure processes. Elastic recovery was prevalent in coatings of higher thickness and higher rate of loading. The increased loading rate although caused early failure but resulted in less wear. A transition between tensile and compressive nature of stress confined strictly to the coating was found using finite element modelling (FEM).