Mechanical and structural properties of various alloyed TiAlN-based hard coatings

There is increased industrial usage of modern tools used in cutting operations today that are coated with PVD hard coatings based on TiAlN. Machining of hard workpiece materials and heat-resistant alloys have been enabled with such coated tools but further broad performance improvements are sought. Coating properties such as thermal stability, hot hardness, and toughness are of interest when designing their functionality in these applications. In this work various TiAlN-based hard films deposited by cathodic arc technology are characterized. The influences of different alloy elements boron, silicon and chromium on coating mechanical, physical, and structural properties and on coating response to high temperature oxidation are presented. Out of these elements silicon seems to be very interesting for future developments.