Abstract
It is desirable to improve tool steel wear resistance to produce pieces with precise dimensions and increase the lifetime of tools. The aim of this work was to modify the surface of 1.2344 (X40CrMoV5-1) hot work tool steel to improve the wear properties. Surface modification was achieved in three steps: first, hardening was applied, followed by plasma nitridation and, finally, physical vapor deposition (PVD) was employed to produce a TiN/AlTiN multilayer coating. The microhardness and the wear coefficient of the surfaces were measured. PVD coating showed the highest hardness value, 2938 HV0.01, whereas plasma nitridation followed by PVD resulted in 2679 HV0.01. The surface modification resulted in an increase in surface roughness in all cases compared to the hardened sample. However, the wear coefficient showed a significant decrease for the surface treated samples. The lowest wear coefficient of K = 1.47 × 10−10 mm3/Nm, which is a magnitude lower than the reference hardened sample (K = 6.32 × 10−9 mm3/Nm), was achieved employing both plasma nitridation and PVD. The results confirm that the use of a combined surface modification of plasma nitridation and PVD significantly improve the wear resistance of the treated samples.
Highlights
Improving the wear resistance of tool steels is a pressing requirement
The results are in line with the literature: (1) the hardness of TiAlN based on [37] is 22.7 ± 0.9 GPa, whereas the hardness of N-H-physical vapor deposition (PVD) is 2938 HV0,01, corresponding to approximately 28.81 GPa; (2) the elastic modulus of TiAlN layer based on [37] is E = 304 ± 11 GPa, correlating well with our measurement of sample N-H-PVD of E = 202 GPa
In the case of the elastic modulus, the reverse trend can be observed with 166 GPa for the plasma nitrited and PVD-coated sample and 202 GPa for the PVD-coated sample
Summary
Improving the wear resistance of tool steels is a pressing requirement. The required properties of tool steels are high strength at elevated temperatures, high impact strength, hot wear resistance, good toughness, and good hardenability. Despite high strength tool steels having good hot working capabilities, at elevated temperatures during the manufacturing process they suffer from surface oxidation, decarbonization, chemical interactions between oxides, tribological contacts as well as thermal and mechanical loads [1,2,3]. High strength tool steels, such as 1.2344 (X40CrMoV5-1), are widely used in hot-working processes (above 200 ◦C). Surface modification is commonly used to improve the wear resistance of tool steels. Tool steel 1.2344 was selected for this study because it fulfils the requirement of good hardenability at high temperatures before the surface modification
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