Erosion Resistance Enhancement of TC11Alloy with Ti/TiN Multilayers: An Experimental Study

We experimentally addressed an enhancement of erosion-resistance with the Ti/TiN multilayered coatings, grown by cathodic vacuum arc deposition on the substrate of aircraft engine material TC11 alloy.The influence of the TiN thickness on the erosion resistance and microstructures was investigated with X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and conventional mechanical tools.The results show that depending on TiN single layer thickness, the Ti/TiN coatings reduced the erosion wear-rate by 90% at most.A thick enough TiN layer significantly improved the triobogical properties, including the stronger hardness, higher impact tenacity and greater resistances against erosion and crack-formation.Moreover, the erosion produced a stepped surface of Ti/TiN coatings, simply because a sputtered etching nibbled away layer-by-layer the edges.However, no overall peeling-off was observed due to a strong interfacial adhesion.