Wear and friction of TiAlN/VN coatings against Al2O3 in air at room and elevated temperatures

TiAlN/VN multilayer coatings exhibit excellent dry sliding wear resistance and low friction coefficient, reported to be associated with the formation of self-lubricating V2O5. To investigate this hypothesis, dry sliding ball-on-disc wear tests of TiAlN/VN coatings on flat stainless steel substrates were undertaken against Al2O3 at 25 C, 300 C and 635 C in air. The coating exhibited increased wear rate with temperature. The friction coefficient was 0.53 at 25 C, which increased to 1.03 at 300 C and decreased to 0.46 at 635 C. Detailed investigation of the worn surfaces was undertaken using site-specific transmission electron microscopy (TEM) via focused ion beam (FIB) microscopy, along with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. Microstructure and tribo-induced chemical reactions at these temperatures were correlated with the coating’s wear and friction behaviour. The friction behaviour at room temperature is attributed to the presence of a thin hydrated tribofilm and the presence of V2O5 at high temperature

Long-term behaviour of Nb and Cr nitrides nanostructured coatings under steam at 650°C. Mechanistic considerations.

There is an increasing demand for steam power plants to operate in super-critical conditions i.e. temperatures in excess of 600°C. Under these conditions creep resistant ferritic steels oxidize and therefore require coatings in order to last. Physical vapor deposition and especially High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering deposited CrN/NbN nano-scale multilayer coatings with a 2.45 Cr/Nb ratio showed excellent performance when exposed to 650 °C in pure steam environment up to 2,000 h. However the role of Nb in offering protection is unclear. In order to study the long term behaviour of this type of coatings as well as to determine the influence of Nb on their oxidation resistance, a CrN/NbN coating with a 1.16 Cr/Nb ratio was studied for 12,650 h. The coating is hard, well adhered and resistant to environmental corrosion, which are properties required in particular for coatings to be applied on turbine blades. The coating also protects P92 from steam oxidation at 650º C, however coating growth defects influence significantly the oxidation resistance. The long-time exposure allowed to study the protection/ degradation mechanisms provided by this type of ceramic coatings. It was found that oxide nodules grow due to the presence of coating defect originated from substrate defects. Moreover, the higher Nb CrN/NbN coating slowly oxidizes, consuming the coating to a large extent after 12,650 h. As a result, protective oxides containing Cr and Nb are developed, remaining well attached to the substrate for at least the test duration, and preventing further substrate oxidation by steam. Interestingly, thin voids present in the as deposited coating self-heal by forming Cr rich oxides, which block steam to reach the substrate

Deposition of nanoscale multilayer CrN/NbN physical vapor deposition coatings by high power impulse magnetron sputtering

Nanoscale multilayer CrN/NbN physical vapor deposition (PVD) coatings are gaining reputation for their high corrosion and wear resistance. However, the CrN/NbN films deposited by ABS(TM) (are bond sputtering) technology have some limitations such as macrodroplets, porosity, and less dense structures. The novel HIPIMS (high power impulse magnetron sputtering) technique produces macroparticle-free, highly ionized metal plasma, which brings advantages in both surface pretreatment and coating deposition stages of the PVD process. In this study, nanoscale multilayer CrN/NbN PVD coatings were pretreated and deposited with HIPIMS technology and compared with those deposited by HIPIMS-UBM (unbalanced magnetron) and by the ABSTM technique. In all cases Cr+ etching was utilized to enhance adhesion by low energy ion implantation. The coatings were deposited at 400 degrees C with substrate biased (Ub) at -75 V. During coating deposition, HIPIMS produced significantly high activation of nitrogen compared to the UBM as observed with mass spectroscopy. HIPIMS-deposited coatings revealed a bilayer period of 4.1 nm (total thickness: 2.9 mu m) and hardness of 3025 HK0.025. TEM results revealed droplet free, denser microstructure with (200) preferred orientation for the HIPIMS coating owing to the increased ionization as compared to the more porous structure with random orientation observed in UBM coating. The dry sliding wear coefficient (K-c) of the coating was 1.8 X 10(-15) m(3) N-1 m(-1), whereas the steady state coefficient of friction was 0.32. Potentiodynamic polarization tests revealed higher E-corr values, higher pitting resistance (around potentials +400 to +600 mV), and lower. corrosion current densities for HIPIMS deposited coatings as compared to the coatings deposited by ABS or HIPIMS-UBM. The corrosion behavior of the coatings qualitatively improved with the progressive use of HIPIMS from pretreatment stage to the coating deposition step. (C) 2008 American Vacuum Society

Composition and dynamics of high power impulse magnetron discharge at W-Mo-C target in argon atmosphere

Metal-doped diamond-like carbon (Me-DLC) is a typical industrial solution for wear resistant coating due to their tribological properties. DLC doping with metal is used to reduce internal stress of the DLC coating, improve its thermal stability, hardness, coating-substrate adhesion, and wear resistance. Furthermore, application of the High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) for Me-DLC deposition allows improvement of coating adhesion and densification of the coating. To improve the properties of the DLC coatings doping with tungsten and molybdenum from a mixed W-Mo-C target can be used. This study concerns the plasma chemistry and composition for a W-Mo-C target operated with HIPIMS in argon atmosphere. For a HIPIMS discharge with a fixed pulse length of 150 μs a linear dependence of the average power and current are observed. The optical emission spectroscopy experiments reveal a temporal dependence of the plasma composition as the current pulse develops. First plasma is dominated by argon neutrals and ions followed by molybdenum and tungsten. Significant separation between the two metal species is observed in terms of the times of onset and peak of the emission. As a consequence of the change of the neutral gas to metal ratio the estimated effective electron temperature, Te, changes from ~2 eV as estimated from Ar I emission to ~0.3-0.6 eV as indicated by W I emission. A change of Te is also observed with the change of HIPIMS frequency: the Te estimated from metal excitations increases most probably as a result of the processes taking place in the afterglow phase between HIPIMS pulses. The transition from argon plasma at the beginning of the pulse to metal-rich plasma in the second phase of the pulse is discussed in comparison with the ion current measurements performed with a planar probe

A Case of Atypical McCune-Albright Syndrome with Vaginal Bleeding

Abstract Background: McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS) is a rare non-inherited disorder characterized by the clinical triad of precocious puberty, cafe-au-lait skin lesions, and fibrous dysplasia of bone. Case Presentation: We report a girl with MAS, presenting initially with vaginal bleeding at the age of 17 months. Ultrasonography revealed unilateral ovarian cysts and ureteral and ovarian enlargement. Considering the clinical and paraclinical findings, the patient diagnosed as a case of gonadotropin-independent precocious puberty was treated with medroxy-progestrone acetate (MPA) for three months. During the follow up, recurrent episodes of bleeding, ovarian activation and cyst formation, as well as breast size development were reported. At the age of 5.5 years, fibrous dysplasia was detected, which in coexistence with precocious puberty confirmed the diagnosis of MAS. The patient had no cafe-au-lait skin macles during follow up. Conclusion: Considering that clinical manifestations of MAS appear later in the course of recurrent periods of ovarian activation and cyst formation, a careful clinical observation and follow up of patients is necessary and the diagnosis of MAS must be kept in mind in cases with gonadotropinindependent precocious puberty

The effect of (Ti + Al): V ratio on the structure and oxidation behaviour of TiAlN/VN nano-scale multilayer coatings

Nano-scaled multilayered TiAlN/VN coatings have been grown on stainless steel and M2 high speed steel substrates at U-B = - 85 V in an industrial, four target, Hauzer HTC 1000 coater using combined cathodic steered arc etching/unbalanced magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction (XRD) has been used to investigate the effects of process parameters (Target Power) on texture evolution (using texture parameter T*), development of residual stress (sin(2) psi method) and nano-scale multilayer period. The composition of the coating was determined using energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The thermal behaviour of the coatings in air was studied using thermo-gravimetric analysis, XRD and scanning electron microscopy. The bi-layer period varied between 2.8 and 3.1 nm and in all cases a {1 1 0} texture developed with a maximum value T* = 4.9. The residual stress varied between -5.2 and -7.4 GPa. The onset of rapid oxidation occurred between 628 and 645 degreesC depending on the (Ti+Al):V ratio. After oxidation in air at 550 degreesC AlVO4, TiO2 and V2O5 Phases were identified by XRD with the AlVO4, TiO2 being the major phases. The formation of AlVO4 appears to disrupt the formation of Al2O3 which imparts oxidation resistance to TiAlN based coatings. Increasing the temperature to 600 and 640 degreesC led to a dramatic increase in the formation of V2O5 which was highly oriented (0 0 1) with a plate-like morphology. At 640 degreesC there was no evidence of the coating on XRD. Increasing the temperature to 670 degreesC led to further formation of AlVO4 and a dramatic reduction in V2O5. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Structure of duplex CrN/NbN coatings and their performance against corrosion and wear

In tribological applications the coating-substrate combination can be considered as a system, since both greatly influence the properties of that affect the tribological performance. Further, it is often desirable that both high wear resistance and corrosion resistance can be achieved even when low cost and easily machineable substrate materials are considered. Duplex surface treatment combining pulse plasma nitriding and PVD coating can provide solution for excellent wear and corrosion resistance for low alloy and constructional steels. In this work three different pulse plasma nitriding processes were carried out prior to the CrN/NbN PVD coating to attain high surface hardness and enhanced load bearing behaviour for S154 high strength construction steel. The phase composition of the compound layer, formed in the nitriding process, was found to greatly affect the tribological properties of the duplex system. The compound layer with high amount of epsilon-phase contributed to superior corrosion and wear resistance, whereas the ductile gamma'-phase compound layer provided better impact resistance and enhanced. The best duplex treated S154 samples had wear resistance comparable to that of similarly coated HSS. The corrosion resistance was also improved by duplex process. If anodic current at +500 mV vs. SCE is considered as criteria, the best system has almost 3 orders of magnitude lower corrosion current than with the PVD coating alone. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Performance of nano-structured multilayer PVD coating TiAlN/VN in dry high speed milling of aerospace aluminium 7010-T7651

A low-friction and wear resistant TiAlN/VN multilayer coating with TiAlN/VN bilayer thickness 3 nm has been grown by using the combined cathodic arc etching and unbalanced magnetron sputtering deposition on high speed steel tools for dry cutting of aluminium alloys. In this paper, in-lab and industrial high speed milling tests have been performed on an aerospace aluminium alloy 7010-T7651. The results show that the TiAlN/VN coated tools achieved lower cutting forces, lower metal surface roughness, and significantly longer tool lifetime by three times over the uncoated tools as a result of the low friction and eliminated tool-metal adhesion. Under the same conditions, a TiAlN based multicomponent coating TiAlCrYN also increased the tool lifetime by up to 100% despite the high cutting forces measured

Development of superlattice CrNNbN coatings for joint replacements deposited by High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering

The demand for reliable coating on medical implants is ever growing. In this research, enhanced performance of medical implants was achieved by a CrN/NbN coating utilising nanoscale multilayer/superlattice structure. The advantages of the novel High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering technology, namely its unique highly ionised plasma were exploited to deposit dense and strongly adherent coatings on Co-Cr implants. TEM analyses revealed coating superlattice structure with bi-layer thickness of 3.5 nm. CrN/NbN deposited on Co-Cr samples showed exceptionally high adhesion, critical load values of LC2= 50 N in scratch adhesion tests. Nanoindentation tests showed high hardness of 34 GPa and Young's modulus of 447 GPa. Low coefficient of friction (µ) 0.49 and coating wear coefficient (KC) = 4.94 x 10-16 m3N-1m-1 were recorded in dry sliding tests. Metal ion release studies showed a reduction in Co, Cr and Mo release at physiological and elevated temperatures, (70 oC) to almost undetectable levels (<1 ppb). Rotating beam fatigue testing showed a significant increase in fatigue strength from 349±59 MPa (uncoated) to 539±59 MPa (coated). In vitro biological testing has been performed in order to assess the safety of the coating in biological environment, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and sensitisation testing have been performed, all showing no adverse effects. Keywords: Orthopaedic implant, High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering, Superlattice coating, Corrosion, Biocompatibility

Substrate finishing and niobium content effects on the high temperature corrosion resistance in steam atmosphere of CrN/NbN superlattice coatings deposited by PVD-HIPIMS

The main objective of this work was to evaluate the oxidation resistance of three PVD-HIPIMS CrN/NbN coatings, studying the effect of the surface finishing of the substrate and the role of niobium content into the coating composition. CrN/NbN nano-multilayered films on P92 steel were tested at 650°C in pure steam atmosphere. The mass gain was measured at fixed intervals to study their oxidation kinetics. The morphology and thickness of nanoscales were measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Characterization of coatings before and after the thermal treatment was performed by scanning electron microscopy-energy with facilities of dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). All coatings improved the oxidation resistance of the substrate material, but the best behaviour was exhibited by the CrN/NbN with the high niobium (Nb) content and deposited on the substrate with the finest surface finishing