The properties and performance of thin ceramic coatings
are largely affected by three factors: (1) deposition parameters,
(2) pretreatments applied to substrates before coating deposi-tion, and (3) physical arrangements about the deposition in-strument such as arrangement of the target to substrate distance
(TSD). In this study, the structural, mechanical, and tribo-logical properties of magnetron-sputtered TiAlN coatings de-posited on hardened and nitridedAISIH13 steel substrates and
silicon wafers at different nitrogen partial pressures of 0.3, 0.6,
and 1.2 mTorr; substrate bias voltages of 0,−100, and−200 V;
and TSDs of 6, 11, 16, and 21 cm using a compound Ti0.5Al0.5
target were investigated and the combination effect of all fac-tors was studied in detail. A CSEM-Revetest scratch tester was
adapted for wear tests as a multipass sliding wear tester and
Al2O3ceramic balls were used as a counter material for TiAlN
repetitive sliding. A 2
4
full-factorial experimental design was
conducted to screen the significant factors influencing the wear
resistance of the films. It was found that the hardness and me-chanical properties of the coatings increased at low nitrogen
pressure, high bias voltage, and short TSD. Furthermore, du-plex treatment and nitrogen pressure were determined to be
crucial parameters.

KEY WORDS
Titanium Aluminium Nitride; Magnetron Sputtering; Duplex
Treatment; Multipass Sliding Wear