Influence of Structure on the Tribotechnical Characteristics of Multilayer Ion-Plasma Coatings CrAlSiN/Cr

To improve the performance of heavily loaded friction units in technological machinery and transport vehicles, the use of multilayer CrAlSiN/Cr coatings has been proposed, in which Cr was employed as a sublayer and as an intermediate layer between the ceramic CrAlSiN layers. The coatings were deposited on 40KhN steel using a BRV600 vacuum system. The evaporation regime was a three-cathode arc process with magnetic separation. Two types of coatings were obtained, with total thicknesses of 1.25 µm and 3.6 µm. The microstructure of the coatings in cross-section was examined by scanning electron microscopy. The mechanical properties were characterized by instrumented indentation (continuous indentation method). Tribological tests were carried out using a ball-on-disk configuration. The surface morphology of the coatings after tribological testing was studied by optical profilometry. Owing to the periodic multilayer CrAlSiN/Cr architecture, the coatings obtained exhibited high hardness and favorable resistance to elastic and plastic deformation. An increase in the overall coating thickness and the number of alternating CrAlSiN/Cr lamellae ensures stable tribological performance (a friction coefficient of 0.5 at loads of 5—10 N) compared to the thinner variant (where the friction coefficient reaches 0.6—0.7). Coatings of the second type demonstrate a threefold decrease in wear rate compared to the thin coating over the entire load range of 1—10 N and with an increase in the number of cycles up to 1000, which confirms their substantially higher wear resistance. The stages and types of wear during interaction of the investigated coating with the corundum counterbody were identified, taking into account the obtained tribogram and the morphology of the wear tracks.

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