Effect of Temperature and Gas Flux on the Mechanical Behavior of TiC Coating by Pulsed DC Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition(TECHNICAL NOTE)

  There are many factors such as voltages, duty cycle, pressure, temperatures and gas flux in coatings process that were effective in changing coatings characteristic. In this paper in plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique, temperature and gas flux are two important variants that affecting the coatings structure and mechanical properties. All TiC coating deposited on a hot work tool steel (H13) had a thickness of 2-3 micrometer. The investigation of TiC coatings composition and structure were done with the grazing incidence XRD, the FTIR (Fourier Transformation Infrared Spectroscopy) and the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). The mechanical properties of the coatings, such as hardness, wear resistance and surface roughness were studied with Vickers hardness indentation; pin on disk wear tests and atomic force microscopy, respectively. The best mechanical properties such as a high hardness (3100 VHN), wear resistance and fracture toughness (11.3MPa. m1/2) and low surface roughness (18 nm) were related to the coating that was deposited in 450°C.