Hard and wear-resistant titanium nitride films for ceramic cutting tools by pulsed high energy density plasma

High-quality and wear-resistant titanium nitride films were deposited onto silicon nitride ceramic cutting tools by pulsed high energy density plasma technique at ambient temperature. The adhesive strength of TiN film to the ceramic substrate has been satisfactory with very high critical load up to more than 80 mN measured by nanoscratch tester. The TiN films possess very high values of nanohardness and Young's modulus, which are near to 28 and 350 GPa, respectively. The wear resistance and edge life of the ceramic tools were increased greatly because of the deposition of titanium nitride coatings. The cutting performance of the silicon nitride ceramic tools with such TiN films could be optimized by varying the deposition conditions, including the (shot) number of pulsed plasma and the discharge voltage between the inner and outer electrodes, etc. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.