Tribological compatibility of cost-effective TiAlVN coatings deposited using Ti6Al4V alloy targets

TiAlVN coatings were deposited via reactive magnetron sputtering using cost-effective Ti6Al4V alloy targets, offering a practical alternative to conventional sintered targets for TiN-based coatings. The TiAlVN coatings exhibited a microstructure composed of alternating Ti(Al,V)N and TiN nanocolumnar, with a hardness of 30.8 GPa. Tribological performance was evaluated against four counterparts (WC–Co, Si₃N₄, GCr15, and Al). Although Al had the lowest hardness, it resulted in the highest coating wear rate (8.02 × 10⁻⁶ mm3/N·m), whereas the hardest counterpart, WC–Co, showed the best tribological compatibility and the lowest coating wear rate (2.80 × 10⁻⁶ mm3/N·m). The wear mechanisms of the coatings and counterparts were discussed and the tribological compatibility parameter (Wt) was defined based on the wear rates of both the coating and the counterpart. Moreover, a model based on mechanical properties and COF was established to analysis and predict tribological compatibility. The model demonstrated strong correlation with experimental results (R2 = 0.94) and was further validated using external data, highlighting its applicability to other coating-counterpart systems.