Tribological Properties of Coatings Applied on Near-Nano and Nanostructured WC-Co Hardmetals by Using Plasma-Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition Technique

Samples of nanostructured hardmetals were sintered as a substrate material by applying two different powder metallurgy processes. The starting powders had an average grain size from 95 nm to 150 nm. The plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition technique was used for the deposition of coatings and two coating systems, i.e. the 2 m titanium nitride and 3.8 m titanium carbon nitride were produced. Scratch tests were conducted with an increasing load ranging from 5 to 200 N. Critical normal loads of coating delamination during the scratch tests were registered. The sliding wear resistance was investigated with a ball-on-disc test. The ball-on-disc test showed that the porosity of the sintered product had the highest impact on the wear volume loss. Nanostructured hardmetals showed a great potential for application of plasma-assisted chemical Vapour deposition.