Magnetron sputtered films prepared from sintered Ti-based target and evaluation of tribological properties under the ball on disc condition with varying thickness and load

The hard nanocomposite coatings comprised of titanium, silicon, boron, and carbon (Ti-Si-B-C) and titanium, silicon, boron, carbon, and nitrogen (Ti-Si-B-C-N) were deposited on SS 304 substrate using magnetron sputtering technique. The tribological properties of these Ti-Si-B-C and Ti-Si-B-C-N coatings were explored with the variation of load (200-600 g) and thickness (3-25 mu m) against high strength steel ball using a ball on a disc tribometer. The nanoindentation technique was used to investigate the wear tracks and its consequent effect on the mechanical behaviour of uncoated and coated films. The analyses of the phases, microstructure, states of valence, shift of electron, and elemental compositions of the coatings were carried out by HRTEM, FESEM, AFM, XPS, EDX, and Raman spectroscopy techniques, respectively. The 2D cross-sectional profiles and 3D topographies of the wear tracks were explored using a 3D profilometer. All these studies established that the 10 mu m thick titanium-based sputtered nanocomposite coatings on SS 304 are efficient wear-resistant materials that showed excellent protection of the substrates from wear up till application of 500 g load. A good correlation between the composition, structure, properties, and processing of materials has been discussed based on the obtained wear behaviour.