Wear and Friction Properties of TiN,TiAlN and CrAlN PVD Coatings

The paper reports a comparative study of the tribological properties of the most employed hard coatings like TiN, TiAlN and CrAlN. Ball-on-disc wear tests were performed on the CETR UMT-2 test system against Si3N4 balls with a relatively high speed of 100m/min. The coating character and test results were obtained through SEM, XRD and Wyko surface profilometer. The results are as follows: The friction coefficients of the three coatings are relatively high because of the superabundant wear debris during tests. The wear behaviour and wear tracks exist distinct differences for different coatings. As for wear rates, the sequence of three coatings is TiN>TiAlN>CrAlN, the combination property of CrAlN is the best.