Tribological properties under dry and lubricated sliding conditions of TiSiN and AlTiCrN coatings deposited on gray cast iron

Abstract

In internal combustion engines, the majority of friction losses and wear occur between the cylinder liners and piston rings. Hard coatings applied to cylinder liners can increase the efficiency of internal combustion engines by improving tribological properties. The gray cast iron cylinder liner was coated with TiSiN and AlTiCrN employing the cathodic arc deposition process. The coatings were examined using nanoindentation tests, scratch tests, an optical profilometer, a scanning electron microscope, an X-ray diffractometer, and energy dispersive analysis to assess their hardness, adhesion, and structural characteristics. The reciprocating test was carried out to assess the coatings' wear and friction characteristics under lubricated and dry sliding with a ball at varying normal loads. The hardness of the TiSiN and AlTiCrN coatings was 45 GPa and 18 GPa, respectively. The cohesion strength, adhesion strength, and crack propagation resistance of AlTiCrN coating were approximately 2, 1.3 and 2.5 times higher than those of TiSiN coating, respectively. Both coatings exhibited remarkable wear performance at high normal loads. Under dry sliding conditions at 25 N normal load, the wear rate of AlTiCrN and TiSiN coatings were nearly 33 and 20 times, respectively, lower than the uncoated substrate. Under dry sliding conditions, the TiSiN coating exhibited the lowest wear rate at low normal loads (5 N and 15 N), while the AlTiCrN coating performed best at high normal loads (25 N). In lubricated sliding conditions, the AlTiCrN coating consistently showed the lowest wear rate across all normal loads.