Investigations on Nanolaminated TiZrN/CrN as a Tribological PVD Hard Coating for Incremental Sheet Forming Tools

The development and tribological examinations of physical vapor deposition (PVD) tool coatings for incremental sheet forming processes, was investigated. The tribological examinations were carried out using deep drawing steel specimens of 20 and 6mm diameter, convex mirror-polished tool steel pins as tool counter partners. Tool steel circular blanks as well as half flat carbide cutting inserts were used as substrates for coating development purpose. Regarding the sheet metal forming process, the PVD coating introduced was deposited on convex tool steel counter partner pins for use in the tribometer set-up. According to the results presented, the wear rate increases with increasing measurement temperature. The coated specimen shows several small wear marks, but none with an assessed wear diameter larger than 120 μm. Overall, the counter partner wear rates significantly differ when comparing the non-lubricated tribometer measurements using non-coated counter partners with lubricated measurements using PVD-coated counter partners.