Wear, erosion and corrosion resistance of CrTiAlN coating deposited by magnetron sputtering

A nanolayered CrTiAlN coating, which was deposited on Ti6Al4V substrate using unbalanced magnetron sputtering technique, was tested to evaluate its performances against wear, erosion and corrosion. The coating, with a higher hardness compared to CrN, demonstrates significantly higher dry sliding wear resistance than CrN and TiN coatings. Different from the brittle TiN coating, the CrTiAlN coating has a maximum erosion rate at an impingement angle of 45° and shows better erosion resistance than TiN coating at 90°. The CrTiAlN coated Ti6Al4V, when tested in 3.5% NaCl aqueous solution, shows a markedly more noble corrosion potential in comparison with the uncoated Ti6Al4V substrate. Furthermore, it demonstrates a wide passive region with a low current density. All these properties make the CrTiAlN coating a good candidate for a variety of industrial applications.