The Influence of Plasma Nitriding Pre-Treatment on Tribological Properties of TiN Coatings Deposited by PACVD

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of plasma nitriding pre-treatment (PN) on mechanical and tribological behavior of TiN coatings produced by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD). The heat treatment of quench and temper was carried out on hot work AISI H11 (DIN 1.2343) steel samples. A group of samples were plasma nitrided at 500 °C for 4 h in an atmosphere containing 25 vol.% nitrogen and 75 vol.% hydrogen. Then TiN layer was deposited on all of samples at 520 °C temperature, 8 kHz frequency, and 33% duty cycle. The microstructural, mechanical, and tribological properties of the coatings were investigated using SEM, WDS, AFM, microhardness tester, and pin-on-disc wear test. The load of wear test was 10 N and the samples were worn against different pins, ball-bearing steel (DIN 1.3505), and cemented tungsten carbide (WC-Co). The results indicate that the difference of hardness between the samples with PN-TiNlayer and those samples with only TiN layer without PN was 450 HV and the former samples showed a significant amount of wear resistance in comparison to the latter ones.