Role of Working Pressure and Deposition Power on the Tribological Performance of TiAlN Thin Films

The choice of brass as the substrate due to its widespread use in soft non-ferrous industrial components such as bearings and electrical connectors creates the primary basis of novelty in this study. While prior tribological studies on titanium aluminum nitride (TiAlN) coatings is primarily focused on hard substrates such as steel and WC–Co, this work addresses the research gap by presenting a systematic investigation of the combined influence of sputtering power and working pressure on TiAlN coatings deposited on brass. Application of TiAlN coatings on brass surfaces was accomplished using magnetron sputtering. Within the scope of this study, the influence of sputtering power and working pressure on the tribological and structural attributes of TiAlN films is evaluated. The analysis of surface morphology is carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while structural characteristics revealed a progressive increment in the intensity of the (103) and (107) peaks with variation in deposition parameters. An analysis was conducted to evaluate the tribological properties of the TiAlN coating using a pin-on-disk tribometer. The study involved varying the speeds, loads, and sliding lengths. The optimized condition achieved wear reduction as high as 22% compared to uncoated brass at a sliding distance of 785 m, which highlights the strong dependence of wear performance on deposition parameters. The wear rates of TiAlN-coated brass ranged between 1.03 × 10−3 and 5.87 × 10−4 mm3/Nm depending on parameters like load, sliding distance and speed. Conversely, TiAlN-coated brass pins prepared at varying power showed wear rates ranging from 1.83 × 10−4 to 5.87 × 10−4 mm3/Nm. These findings demonstrate that optimization of TiAlN coating parameters on brass can significantly enhance wear resistance, which ultimately improves the durability and performance of engineering components in tribological applications.