The mechanical properties and high-temperature wear behavior of AlCrN coating on the TA15 alloy

CrN coating, with excellent anti-oxidation and good anti-adhesive properties, can effectively protect the substrate from damage caused by friction. However, the low hardness of CrN coating results in low abrasive wear resistance, which limits its further application. Therefore, an AlCrN coating was prepared on TA15 alloy by reactive magnetron sputtering method. The results showed that the coating had a high hardness (27.85 GPa), and the wear resistance of TA15 alloy was significantly improved at both 20 °C and 500 °C. The wear rates of AlCrN coating were only 1/30 and 1/15 compared with TA15 alloy at both 20 °C and 500 °C, respectively. The abrasive wear was the primary wear mechanism at 20 °C. At 500 °C, a large number of oxides were formed due to the increased temperature, which implied the oxidation wear and abrasive wear were the primary wear mechanism. The improvement of wear resistance of the AlCrN coating at both temperatures primarily owed to the occurrence of multi-phase structure and the dissolution of AlN into CrN. (paper)