Effect of Exciting Coil-Voltage on Synthesis and Tribological Behavior of Arc Ion Plated TiAlSiN Coating:A Methodological Study

The surfaces of 42 CrMo steel were modified with TiAlSiN coating synthesized by arc ion plating.The influence of the voltage and current of exciting coil on the microstructures and tribological properties of the TiAlSiN coatings was investigated with scanning electron microscopy and conventional mechanical probes.The results show that the voltage had a major impact.To be specific,as the voltage increased,some properties,including the thickness,surface-roughness,pore-density,dominance of columnar-grains and hardness increased,accompanied by the decreases of compactness and pore-sizes,the wear-rate and friction coefficient changed in a decrease-increase manner.Deposited at an exciting coil voltage of 30 V,the flat compact TiAlSiN coatings displayed much higher hardness and resistance against the abrasive wear than those of 42 CrMo steel.The interfacial adhesion was found to be fairly strong.Possible mechanisms were also tentatively discussed.