Impact-wear behaviors of TiN and Ti–Al–N coatings on AISI D2 steel and WC–Co substrates

TiN and Ti–Al–N coatings were prepared on two different substrates, AISI D2 steel and WC–Co, by an arc ion plating (AIP) technique to investigate the impact-wear behaviors of coatings and substrate effect. The impact-wear behavior of both coatings was examined with a ball-on-plate impact test. The H3/E*2 value, the plastic deformation resistance of specimen played an important role to explain impact-wear behaviors of coatings/substrate combinations. As the coatings/substrate system has higher H3/E*2 value, the impact-wear behavior changed from plastic deformation to brittle mode. In case of both coatings on steel substrate, the failure was in progress with plastic deformations of both coating and substrate. The partial failure of both coatings occurred near peripheral zone of cavity, and then, the impact cavity was rapidly open with further impact cycles. In case of both coatings on WC–Co substrate, however, the brittle failure of coatings started from central zone of cavity with their delaminations from substrate. In this work, impact-wear volume of each coatings/substrate combination was compared as a function of impact cycle.