The mechanical and tribological characteristics of boron-based films coated by HiPIMS and pulsed-DC magnetron sputtering

The main issue with machines operating together is energy waste and component deterioration due to friction and wear. To overcome this, the parts may be coated with a thin film to make them smoother and less prone to wearing out. Technology offers a lot of possibilities for employing cubic boron nitride thin films (c-BN). The major disadvantage of the hard c-BN film is its low adhesion. In order to find the most adhesive and hard film, c-BN films were coated using high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS)-closed field unbalanced magnetron sputtering (CFUBMS) with different B4C target voltage values. The structural and chemical properties were investigated using SEM and XPS and FT-IR, respectively. Moreover, FT-IR was used to calculate the internal compressive stress and c-BN concentration. Microhardness and a scratch tester were used to determine the mechanical characteristics. The pin-on-disc tribometer was used to conduct tribological testing. The results showed that films coated with HiPIMS technique had better adhesion than other techniques. This process decreased the compressive internal stress in the film, which led to increased mechanical and tribological properties.