PVD Hard Coatings for High Loaded Al Alloys – Potentials and Limitations

Abstract

PVD hard coating is a well-known surface treatment technology for steels to improve wear resistance and, to some extent, corrosion resistance. In principle, hard coating can be carried out for Al alloys, but due to the natural oxide layer and the insufficient load-bearing capacity of the soft base material, the application of this technology for wear protection of components is not regarded as being particularly promising. The research activities described in this paper focused on electron beam (EB) surface alloying with a Co-based additive, and the influence of two different hardness levels (270HV0.1 and 390HV0.1) on the improvement of the local load-bearing capacity of Al alloys with thin PVD hard coatings. A further focus of this research was on the material-specific aspects of the coating deposition. Compared to steels, the hard coated surface of Al alloys is rougher and the measured adhesion of the coating is significantly lower. For this purpose, different technological PVD parameters (e.g. Ti interlayer, deposition temperature, and time) were adapted to optimize the coating properties – especially adhesion. The paper deals with comparative studies of single (PVD hard coating of Al base material) and duplex treatment (EB alloying of Al base material and subsequent PVD hard coating) by means of improvement of the coating and compound hardness, friction and wear behavior (pin-on-disc test), as well as the corrosion resistance (potentiodynamic measurements in 0.05M H2SO4). While the level of improvement in wear resistance as a result of the duplex treatments strongly depended on the adhesion of the thin coatings, the corrosion behavior was strongly influenced by the PVD deposition process and coating thickness.