Effect of Frequency on Selected Properties of Wc HiPIMS Coatings Deposited Using a Mixture of Ar+Kr as Working Gas

In the article, the authors describe the WC coatings deposited by the High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) method. Industrial equipment was used to prepare the charges. A mixture of argon and krypton (Ar+Kr) gases was used as the working gas. Three coatings were deposited where the frequency was varied in the range from 1000 Hz to 2500 Hz. The thickness ranged from 2.8 µm to 6.8 µm was achieved. The thickness increased with the frequency of the coating process. The authors further evaluated mechanical properties such as roughness, hardness and Young's modulus and tribological properties such as coefficient of friction and wear. The measured properties were compared with the authors' published results in the articles of renowned scientific journals. The measured results compared with published results in scientific journals showed that the increase in frequency has an effect on the kinetic energy of the incident Ar+Kr ions. This causes a greater amount of dusted WC particles from the target, which results in a greater thickness of the deposited coating.