Study of the influence of electron beam treatment of Ti5Al4V substrate on the mechanical properties and surface topography of multilayer TiN/TiO2 coatings

The results show that polycrystalline TiN and anatase - TiO2 phases are present in all cases. The electron beam treatment (EBT) leads to a more symmetrical distribution of the heights in comparison with the untreated substrates, as well as to increase in the surface roughness. The hardness of the Ti5Al4V substrates before and after the electron beam treatment process increases which is due to the transformation α+β to α′ martensitic microstructure occurring due to the fast cooling rate after the melting process. EBT leads to increase the surface roughness from 8 nm to 25 nm for the deposition of TiN/TiO2 coatings on Ti5Al4V. The treatment of Ti5Al4V substrates leads to decrease in the hardness of the coatings - from 7 GPa to 6 GPa. The scratch tests of the coated samples confirm the decrease of the friction coefficient as compared with the uncoated substrates.