Effect and optimization of tribological parameters upon wear responses of TiAlN coating

Abstract

This study investigated the relative effects of tribological process parameters and their optimization for wear responses of a TiAlN thin film deposited on heat-treated and plasma-nitrided novel MDC-K hot work tool steel. The effects of tribological process parameters were studied by conducting a tribological test on the TiAlN thin film against a tungsten carbide (WC) counterbody. The researchers considered three tribological process parameters – namely, sliding velocity, applied load and sliding distance – to conduct the tribological test and study the effect of the parameters on five different wear responses – namely, friction coefficient, surface roughness (R a), wear depth, wear mass loss and hardness. The relative effects of the process parameters were studied using contour plots, and the individual effects and contributions were analyzed using an analysis of variance test. Further, the overall evaluation criteria method was employed to select the optimal settings of tribological process parameters based on the experimental results. Finally, the surface morphology of the worn TiAlN surface against the best and worst parametric settings was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy integrated with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to investigate the underlying wear mechanisms.