| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Advanced Surface Engineering | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session SE+NC-WeA |
| Session: | Hard and Nanocomposite Coatings: Synthesis, Structure, and Properties II |
| Presenter: | V. Gorokhovsky, Arcomac Surface Engineering, LLC |
| Authors: | V. Gorokhovsky, Arcomac Surface Engineering, LLC C. Bowman, Arcomac Surface Engineering, LLC D. VanVorous, Arcomac Surface Engineering, LLC J. Wallace, Arcomac Surface Engineering, LLC |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Nearly defect-free nitride and oxiceramic coatings were deposited by the unidirectional dual large area filtered arc deposition (LAFAD) process. One LAFAD dual arc vapor plasma source was used in both gas ionization and coating deposition modes with and without vertical magnetic rastering of the plasma flow. Substrates made of different metal alloys, as well as carbide and ceramics were installed at different vertical positions on the 0.5 m diameter turntable of the industrial scale batch coating system which was rotated at 12 rpm to assess coating thickness uniformity. Targets of the same or different compositions were installed on the dual cathodic arc sources of the LAFAD plasma source to deposit a variety of coating compositions by mixing the metal vapor and reactive gaseous components in a magnetized strongly ionized plasma flow. The maximum deposition rate typically ranged from 1.5um/hr for TiCr/TiCrN to 2.5 um/hr for Ti/TiN multilayer and AlN single layer coatings, and reached up to 6 um/hr for AlCrO based oxi-ceramic coatings. The vertical coating thickness uniformity was +/-15% inside of the 150mm area without vertical rastering. Vertical rastering increased the uniform coating deposition area up to 250 mm. The coating thickness distribution was well-correlated with the output ion current distribution as measured by a multi-sectional ion collector probe. Coatings were characterized for thickness, surface profile, adhesion, hardness and elemental composition. Estimates of electrical resistivity indicated good dielectric properties for most of the AlCrO based oxi-ceramic coatings. The multi-elemental LAFAD plasma flow consisting of fully ionized metal vapor with reactive gas ionization rate in excess of 50% was found especially suitable for deposition of nanocomposite, nanostructured coatings. Potential applications of this highly productive coating deposition process are discussed.