Scratch adhesion characteristics of PVD TiAlN deposited on high speed steel, cemented carbide and PCBN substrates

In the present study scratch testing has been used in order to evaluate to increase the understanding of the mechanical response and potential coating failure modes of cathodic arc evaporated TiAlN deposited on high speed steel, cemented carbide and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride. Post-test characterization of the scratched samples using optical profilometry, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were performed and the cohesive and adhesive surface failure mechanisms are described and related to the substrate material properties. The results clearly show that, although all substrate materials can be regarded as hard, they result in completely different coating failure mechanisms at the normal load corresponding to substrate exposure. Also, coating failure resulting in substrate exposure does not necessarily correspond to interfacial cracking resulting in adhesive fracture along the coating-substrate interface.