Giyoung Kim, Sungmin Lee, Gyeongbuk technopark, Gyeongsangbuk-Do, Korea
Multi-component ceramic coatings such as TiAlN, TiCrN, TiCrSiN and Hard carbon coatings (HCC) were used in wide range of industrial applications, as these have excellent mechanical, chemical and biological properties. These coatings were synthesized by the vapour-phase method from an arc ion plating process. PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coating technologies were commonly used in carrying out ceramic coatings, where the coating materials are vaporized from the source and then transported in the form of a vapour through a vacuum or plasma environment to the substrates.
In recent years, 3-D printing technology has been rapidly developing and tends to apply it to the field of an electrical vehicle and bioengineering. However, the disadvantage of 3-D printing materials is that it is necessary to develop technology that can compensate for the deterioration of wear resistance characteristics. In this study, we will introduce multi-component ceramic coating technology that can complement the wear resistance characteristics of 3-D printing materials. Ti and CoCr were used as 3-D printing materials and ion-plating processes were used for multi-component ceramic coating layers. Wear resistance was measured using the pin-on-disk method and the hardness value was performed using Vicker’s hardness measuring system. The new deposition rate measurement technology was developed based on the fact that the intensity of arc plasma varies depending on the type of target materials and the input power, and this is related to the deposition rate. In this study, the deposition thickness could be controlled very precisely by applying the technology that can measure the deposition rate in the in-situ state using the arc plasma monitoring technology. We were able to establish data on deposition thickness control using this new concept of deposition rate measuring device for various deposition materials and deposition processes. In particular, it was possible to accurately measure a deposition rate of a ceramic thin film with excellent abrasion resistance such as TiN, TiCrN, etc. The hardness of TiN and TiCrN deposited by ion-plating process were measured as 2100Hv and 3200Hv, respectively. In addition, it was found that the wear characteristics of TiN and TiCrN coating samples which were measured by using pin-on-disk method were improved several tens of times more than that of the 3-D printed specimen. These technologies are expected to be applied to components manufactured by 3-D printing methods for compensating weak wear resistant properties of 3-D printing materials.