Influence of Parameters on Sliding Wear of Titanium Nitride Coated 6061 Aluminium Alloy

The objective was to study the wear behaviour of titanium nitride deposited onto 6061 aluminium alloy by DC magnetron sputtering technique. The coating on the aluminium substrate was characterized using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis. The hardness of the uncoated and coated aluminium specimens was tested using Vickers hardness tester and the results revealed that coated specimens had 26 % improvement compared to uncoated samples. The dry sliding wear behaviour of the titanium nitride coated aluminium specimens was investigated using pin on disc tribometer by response surface methodology. Five level central composite design was utilized and experiments were conducted by varying the wear process parameters such as load, velocity and sliding distance within the range 15 to 45 N, 1.5 to 4.5 m/s and 500 to 1500 m respectively. Wear test results revealed that increase in load increases the wear rate and increase in velocity and sliding distance decreases the wear rate. The developed model was validated through the comparison of experimental and model values which yields an error within 3 % confirms that the model was adequate. Scanning electron microscope was utilized to analyze the worn surfaces to study the wear mechanisms.