Influence of Cold-Thermal Composite Treatment on the Structure and Mechanical Properties of CrN Coatings

Abstract

In order to improve the plastic deformation ability of CrN coatings， CrN coatings were deposited on 316L stainless steel by enhanced cathode arc magnetron sputtering.Afterwards，the CrN coatings were post-treated by cold，thermal or cold-thermal composite treatment via tube furnace and liquid nitrogen.The microstructure， morphology， residual stress and mechanical properties of coatings before and after post-treatment were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD)， X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)， scanning electron microscope (SEM) and nanoindenter.Results showed that the hardness of the CrN coating decreased slightly after post-treatment， but its plastic deformation ability increased.Among them， the composite treatment of heating first and then cooling almost kept the hardness of the CrN coating unchanged (only decreased by 0.7%)， while improved its plastic deformation ability (increased by 3.1%) with enhancing its toughness.

Keywords

• crn coatings|enhanced cathodic arc magnetron sputtering|heat treatment|cold treatment|cold-thermal composite treatment|mechanical properties