Investigation of tribological properties of TiAlZrN coated on nitrided H13 steel

In this thesis in order to wear resistance, the surface of heat treated and nitrited AISI H13 (X40CrMoV5-1) hot work tool steel which is widely used in aluminium extrusion process as a mold material were coated with TiAlZrN coating material using pulsed DC closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering method. Taguchi L9 (33) experimental design method was used to optimize depposition parametres. Zr target content, bias voltage and working pressure were selected as variable parametres. Thickness and morphological properties of coatings were investigated using scanning electron microscopy. The phase properties of coatings TiAlZrN coatings were analyzed using X ray diffraction and chemical composition of coatings were determined with EDS analysis. Hardness of coatings were measured using microhardness and nanohardness tester. Adhesion strength of coatings were determined using scratch resistance tester. The friction and were experiments of TiAlZrN coatings were performed using ball on disc tribometer under the room temperature conditions. Results showed that nitrited and TiAlZrN coated samples have higher hardness than unnitrited samples. As a result of ANOVA analysis, it was found that bias voltage and Zr target content have considerable effect of the thickness, hardness, adhesion strength of coatings. Further it was determined that adhesion strength and hardness have significant influence on the wear resistance of coatings at room tempreature.