The Effect of Multilayer Architecture and Ta Alloying on the Mechanical Performance of Ti-Al-N Coatings under Scratching and Uniaxial Tension

The present work is focused on a comparative study of the effect of Ti-Al interlayers and Ta alloying on the mechanical behavior of Ti1-xAlxN coatings under normal contact pressure and in-plane straining. The contact loading of the samples was carried out by scratch testing, while the in-plane tensile straining was performed by uniaxial tension of the coated steel substrates. The Ti0.45Al0.55N and Ti0.43Al0.45Ta0.12N monolithic coatings as well as the Ti0.45Al0.55N/Ti0.45Al0.55 multilayer coatings with different number and thickness of the layers were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering. It was found that the introduction of the ductile Ti0.45Al0.55 layers into the Ti0.45Al0.55N coating and alloying with Ta led to their significant toughening. The improved toughness of the Ti0.43Al0.45Ta0.12N coating coupled with high residual compressive stress and high hardness resulted in its strongest resistance to cracking under scratching and tensile straining among the coatings studied. The multilayer coating with the thickest metal layers exhibited the improved resistance to delamination under in-plane straining.