Effect of the pulse bias voltage parameters on the properties and composition of ZrN coatings deposited by vacuum arc method

Abstract

In the work it is revealed that it is possible to control the structure, the phase and elemental composition of ZrN coatings by the change of the parameters of bias voltage (pulse repetition frequency, amplitude, pulse duty factor, etc.). It is established that optimum parameters of pulse bias voltage for the formation of ion-plasma ZrN coatings with a high hardness and wear resistance are Ub = -150 V, γ = 85%, f = 50 kHz. At these parameters the synthesized coating based on ZrN consists of ZrN crystallites with a cubic crystal lattice, which has [111] texture. The coating has the high hardness (30.5 GPa) and high wear resistance (1.1•10-6 mm3N-1m-1).