New PACVD-hard material layers for wear protection of high-speed steel

TiC/C, (Ti,Al)N and (Ti,Al)C layers have been deposited employing PACVD under dc-pulse discharge conditions and were investigated with respect to their composition and structure. The layer hardness can be varied in a large range by varying the Al content and the C content in the case of the TiC/C layers. By incorporation of C in TiC layers the friction coefficient can be decreased. Analogously to TiN layers, oxygen impurities cause a drastic hardness decrease in (Ti,Al)N layers. It was demonstrated that by InuItilayer deposition including TiN, TiCN and (Ti,Al)N with single layers of 100-300 nm thickness the layer stress decreases by about 50%, which results in an increase in layer adhesion. PACVD (Ti,Al)N and TiC/C layers yielded comparable or even better results than PVD layers in drilling 41Cr4 steel and the Al-alloy AlSi9Cu3. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.