Structure and Properties of TiN–Pb Magnetron Coatings on VT6 and 12Kh18N10T Alloys

Abstract—The influence of the parameters of dc reaction magnetron sputtering of two monoelement targets (Ti, Pb) onto substrates made of a VT6 titanium alloy and 12Kh18N10T steel on the microhardness, the phase composition, and the texture of the sputtered composite coatings is studied. The coatings consist only of Pb and PbO at a lead cathode current of 0.2 A and also include TiN at a current of 0.1 A. The coatings on the VT6 alloy have a higher microhardness as compared to the coatings on 12Kh18N10T steel, which is due to the nitriding-assisted hardening of titanium substrate. The following correlation of the texture with the microhardness is found: the (111) pole density increases threefold and the microhardness of coatings decreases sharply when the ratio of the argon and nitrogen flow rates increases from 2.08 to 4.3.