Tribological metal-carbon coatings deposited by PVD magnetron sputtering

The present paper reports on the tribological analysis of high-performance magnetron sputtered metal-carbon multilayered coating WC:H/Cr, in particular on the effect of the different process parameters on the final coating properties. A detailed mechanical and tribological analysis in terms of hardness, elastic modulus, friction coefficient and wear coefficient for the different coatings have been carried out and discussed. The mechanical test have indicated an overall good tribological behaviour for all the deposited coatings. In particular, we have found that, when the deposition parameters are optimised, these present very low abrasive wear. In these conditions, we report wear coefficients as low as 10(-16) m(3)/N m, which can be attributed to a combination of relative high hardness and very low roughness. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.