Improvement of mechanical and tribological properties in industrial tools by means of application of TiN/ZrN multilayer coatings

Most of the hard coatings have good wear and corrosion resistance; they have been widely used commercially to increase the life span of some industrial elements, for example, cutting tools, sprockets, bearings and components for industrial machinery. In this work TiN/ZrN multilayer coatings were deposited with 10 bilayers by r.f. magnetron sputtering technique, which was also used to deposit monolayer coatings of TiN and ZrN. In addition, the multilayer coating was applied in milling tools and their performance was evaluated in terms of tool life. The coatings were characterized to laboratory scale through X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, Knoop micro hardness, wear tests by CaloTest and adhesion measures by scratch test. The multilayer coating exceeded the monolayer coatings in wear resistance, surface hardness and critical load supported. The adhesion showed for all the coatings was very good as to be considered industrial coatings. The life span of the milling tools were increased to 54.1 % with the application of the multilayer coating.