Rolling-sliding, scuffing and tribocorrosion behaviour of PVD multilayer coatings for gears application

Purpose - The aim of this work is the study the tribological behaviour and tribocorrosion resistance of newly developed multilayer PVD coatings Cr/CrN and CrN/ZrCN applied on nitrided F1272 steel for gear applications. Design/methodology/approach - Tribological characterization has been completed by several tribological tests performed under ball-on-disc configuration, extreme pressure tests to determine the maximum load before the films failure and rolling-sliding tests under line-contact conditions (35-40 per cent of sliding). The response of the different coatings to sodium chloride aggressive environment has been simulated by accelerated tribocorrosion tests, combining simultaneously chemical and mechanical factors. The synergistic effect of wear on corrosion behaviour and vice versa, has been studied in order to compare the protective properties of the different PVD coatings developed. Findings - Cr/CrN PVD coating improves wear in almost a 90 per cent compared to the nitrided substrate, presenting a similar behaviour to this one under extreme pressure conditions. CrN/ZrCN coating also improved substrate wear and especially good behaviour for this coating was observed under extreme pressure conditions. Cr/CrN coating strongly decreases micropitting and scuffing effect when it is tested under rolling-sliding configuration. Under micro-pitting conditions, coating protects the substrate and reduces the fatigue of uncoated discs. When adhesive wear (scuffing) is studied also Cr/CrN improves notable the nitrided steel performance. Under simultaneously corrosion-wear conditions, Cr/CrN coating registered the lowest material loss because in this case only corrosion effect contributed to the coated surface degradation being the mechanical contribution inappreciable. Originality/value - New multilayer coatings with improved wear performance and tribocorrosion resistance have been developed and comprehensively characterized. These coatings can be used in advanced gears for corrosive environmental conditions as well as with biodegradable lubricants.