Development of new self-lubricant coating systems with control of the lubricous
species diffusion have enormous potential to be used in the protection of surfaces in
components for machining. In the last years, vanadium rich coatings have been
introduced as possible candidates for self-lubrication due to their optimum tribological
properties. This work is devoted on the study of V additions on the morphology,
structure and on the tribological properties of TiSiN films deposited by HiPIMS in
Deep Oscillation Magnetron Sputtering (DOMS) mode. Two different peak powers
were used on the deposition of coatings in order to produce films with different
morphology. The tribological properties of coatings were evaluated at room
temperature against Al2O3 balls on a pin-on-disc apparatus. Increasing of peak power
showed to change the cross section morphology of films from columnar type to
compact structure. V additions improved the tribological properties of TiSiN coatings.This research is sponsored by FEDER funds through the program COMPETE –
Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade – and by national funds through
FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under the projects: PTDC/EMETME/
122116/2010 and PTDC/EMS-TEC/1805/2012. The authors acknowledge the
Master student Melkamu A. Mekicha (co-author of this paper) from the International
Joint European Master in Tribology of Surfaces and Interfaces (TRIBOS) program,
doing his thesis in the mechanical engineering department of the University of
Coimbra, for his special dedication on the development of this research
