Parameters of protective carbon films applied on high-speed steels M42 via magnetronic sputtering

High-speed steel M42, which is used as material for saw teeth in the most popular bimetallic saws, is considered as one of the most universal high-speed steel grades. This steel is characterized by high hardness (HRC 64-67), excellent heat resistance up to 700 °C, good wear resistance and is suitable for cutting of stainless steels with hardness up to 50 HRC. Nanostructured wear-resistant high-hard coatings with high physical and mechanical properties, resistance to impact and vibration loads promotes increase of wear resistance and service life of band saws. The films of hard diamond-like carbon (DLC), containing amorphous carbon with disordered graphite ordering, which is striving to a tetrahedral diamond-like coordination, are interesting for material scientists due to their excellent mechanical and tribological properties. Dense and hard carbon films with structure of nanoparticles having size 12-17 nm, were applied on high-speed steel M42 (according to AISI) via the method of high-frequency magnetronic sputtering. Microhardness of DLC film of high-speed steel M42 (M42 HSS) by Vickers with the coating thickness 800 nm was 838±19 in comparison with 783±18 for a clean sample of the same steel. Good microstructure, wear protection properties and high temperature oxidation protection of obtained carbon nanostructured films on the surface of M42 HSS are observed