Superior wear resistance of CrN film by PVD/HVOF structure design

Abstract

Nitride films are generally hard yet brittle and thin, leading to cracking and peeling off, particularly under heavy load. In response, this study proposes a combinatorial strategy to improve the wear resistance performance of CrN film using PVD/HVOF technology. Although introducing the FeCoNiAlSi HVOF coating does not change the phase structure of top CrN film, it improves the hardness, bearing capacity and binding strength of CrN film. In addition, the wear resistance has also been significantly enhanced, the introduction of FeCoNiAlSi HVOF coating changes the wear mechanism of CrN from abrasive wear and fatigue wear to abrasive wear of CrN/FeCoNiAlSi double-layer coating. It is speculated that this PVD/HVOF combinatorial design concept may be applied to many other soft metal substrates.