study of multilayer and multicomponent coatings deposited using cathodic arc technique on h-13 hot work steel for diecasting applications

Die casting process is used since long, but even today problems like erosion, corrosion, soldering andsticking affect die life. these dies undergo thermal cyclic loads from 70◦ c to 600◦c during processing.physical vapor deposition (pvd) hard coating can play an important role in such extreme applications. inthe present work, we report the use of chromium based multilayer crn/cr (m-crn) coatings and multicomponentaluminium titanium based altin (m-altin) coatings. the h-13 steel substrate samples wereprepared using cathodic arc deposition technique. structural properties of the coated samples were studiedusing xrd and sem techniques. tribological and mechanical properties of the coatings were studied usingcalo-test and micro-hardness test respectively. potentiostat technique was used to study the effect of 1 mhcl solution on these coatings. thermal fatigue (tf) test was conducted by heating the sample to around 600◦c and rapidly cooling it to room temperature imitating the die casting process conditions. after multiplecycles, it was observed that m-altin coated samples outperform m-crn coated samples in terms of wear,oxidation and adhesion properties. it was observed that formation of oxide layer on the coated surface duringthe thermal cycling inhibits further oxidation of the coating layer and result in enhanced productivity andefficiency of dies.