Characteristics and Wear Mechanisms of TiAlN-Based Coatings for Machining Applications: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

The machining process is still a very relevant process in today’s industry, being used to produce high quality parts for multiple industry sectors. The machining processes are heavily researched, with the focus on the improvement of these processes. One of these process improvements was the creation and implementation of tool coatings in various machining operations. These coatings improved overall process productivity and tool-life, with new coatings being developed for various machining applications. TiAlN coatings are still very present in today’s industry, being used due to its incredible wear behavior at high machining speeds, high mechanical properties, having a high-thermal stability and high corrosion resistance even at high machining temperatures. Novel TiAlN-based coatings doped with Ru, Mo and Ta are currently under investigation, as they show tremendous potential in terms of mechanical properties and wear behavior improvement. With the improvement of deposition technology, recent research seems to focus primarily on the study of nanolayered and nanocomposite TiAlN-based coatings, as the thinner layers improve drastically these coating’s beneficial properties for machining applications. In this review, the recent developments of TiAlN-based coatings are going to be presented, analyzed and their mechanical properties and cutting behavior for the turning and milling processes are compared.

Wear Behavior and Machining Performance of TiAlSiN-Coated Tools Obtained by dc MS and HiPIMS: A Comparative Study

“…The better performance by the T2 tools can also be attributed to the coating’s residual compressive stresses, as HiPIMS usually produces coatings with higher values of these stresses, when compared to PVD dc MS deposition technique [ 37 , 38 ]. Moreover, these stresses can be beneficial to produce a better machined surface quality [ 51 ].…”

“…This can be explained due to the properties that are conferred to the HiPIMS-obtained coatings, which exhibit overall better mechanical properties, when compared to coating’s obtained via more conventional methods [ 35 , 36 ]. These higher values of coating’s mechanical properties promote a better wear behavior on behalf of the coated tool, especially hardness, which can reduce the amount of abrasive wear sustained by the coating [ 51 ]. The HiPIMS technique also produces coatings with higher adhesive strength to the substrate [ 37 ], which can be related to the wear performance of the coating, with good adhesion to the substrate causing an increase in the coating’s wear resistance [ 20 ].…”

“…The good performance of TiAlN-based coatings for high-speed machining applications is well documented, producing good machined surface quality and increasing the tool’s wear resistance [ 51 ]. In particular, TiAlSiN coating exhibits good wear behavior and performance when used in machining operations of hard-to-machine materials, such as DSS or even hard tool-steel [ 52 ].…”

The Effect of Multilayer Architecture and Ta Alloying on the Mechanical Performance of Ti-Al-N Coatings under Scratching and Uniaxial Tension

“…[1]. In particular, Ti 1−x Al x N coatings have been extensively used in many industrial applications due to their excellent hardness, thermal stability and oxidation resistance [2][3][4][5][6]. For example, Ti 1−x Al x N coatings deposited onto nitrided AISI H11 steel substrates increased the hardness from 10 to 30 GPa and decreased the wear coefficient by 50% [6].…”

The Geometric Surface Structure of EN X153CrMoV12 Tool Steel after Finish Turning Using PCBN Cutting Tools

“…According to [15][16][17][18], TiN and TiAlN coatings on CBN blades provide a 30% (TiN) to 40% (TiAlN) higher tool life, compared to uncoated CBN tools. TiAlN coating applied on cutting tools, which is a TiN improved by adding aluminum, provides higher, than TiN coating, resistance to oxidation at high temperatures [19]. TiN oxidation process takes place at about 400 • C., while TiAlN oxidizes at temperatures above 600 • C [20,21], which increases the TiAlN-coated tool life.…”