CHARACTERIZATION OF TiB2 COATING ADHERENCE BY A MULTI-PASS SCRATCH TESTING

Abstract

TiB2 films deposited using various deposition techniques are used to increase the wear lifetime of industrial components. The performance of TiB2 films is dependent on the coating–substrate adhesion. In this study, the fatigue behavior of TiB2 films was investigated using the multi-mode scratch method. Films of TiB2 were deposited on silicon wafers and AISI M2 steel substrates at different frequencies by pulsed-dc closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering (CFUBMS). The microstructures of the films were investigated using SEM techniques, and the hardness was measured using a microhardness tester. A multi-mode operation was used for sliding-fatigue, like multi-pass scratching in the same track at different fractions of critical load (bidirectional sliding) and a standard mode using progressive load operation. It was observed that the films deposited at low frequencies had higher adhesion strength and microhardness, and a denser microstructure.Titanium diboride, multi-pass scratch, adhesion, CFUBMS