Elastic-plastic behavior of hard ceramic coatings

Abstract

Elastic-plastic properties of hard ceramic coatings are of crucial importance for their practical tribological application. In this paper, overview of the significance of the elastic-plastic properties, factors influencing elastic-plastic behavior of hard coatings, parameters used for presentation of elastic-plastic behavior, and of procedures for determination of elastic-plastic properties is presented. Also, elastic-plastic properties were determined for three coatings of different architecture, monolayer TiAlN, nanocomposite TiSiN, and nanolayer TiAlSiN coating. Properties of these three coatings were compared to properties of a number of contemporary coatings. It was shown that, from the point of elastic-plastic behavior, nanostructured coatings are more suitable for demanding tribological applications, such as machining of hard materials, than commonly used monolayer coatings.