CHARACTERIZATION OF TiB2 COATING ADHERENCE BY A MULTI-PASS SCRATCH TESTING

TiB2 films deposited using various deposition techniques are used to increase the wear lifetime of industrial components. The performance of TiB2 films is dependent on the coating-substrate adhesion. In this study, the fatigue behavior of TiB2 films was investigated using the multi-mode scratch method. Films of TiB2 were deposited on silicon wafers and AISI M2 steel substrates at different frequencies by pulsed-dc closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering (CFUBMS). The microstructures of the films were investigated using SEM techniques, and the hardness was measured using a microhardness tester. A multi-mode operation was used for sliding-fatigue, like multi-pass scratching in the same track at different fractions of critical load (bidirectional sliding) and a standard mode using progressive load operation. It was observed that the films deposited at low frequencies had higher adhesion strength and microhardness, and a denser microstructure.