Abstract
Wear restance titanium carbonitride (TiCN) films were deposited on the SKH9 tool steels and WC-Co cutting tools by plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD) using a gaseous mixture of TiCl4, CH4, N2, H2 and Ar. The effects of the deposition temperature and RF(Radio Frequency) power on the deposition rate, chlorine content and crystallinity of the deposited layer were studied. The experimental results showed that the stable and adherent films could be obtained above the deposition temperature of 47$0^{\circ}C$ and maximum deposition rate was obtained at 485$^{\circ}C$. The deposition rate was much affected by RF power and maximum at 40W. The crystallinity of the deposited layer was improved with increasing the deposition temperature and RF power. The TiCN films deposited by PACVD contained much chlorine. The chlorine content in the TiCN films was affected by deposition conditions and decreased with improving the crystallinity of the deposited layer. The deposited TiCN films deposited at the deposition temperature of 52$0^{\circ}C$ and RF power of 40W had an uniform surface with very fine grains of about 500$\AA$ size. The microhardness of the deposited layer was 2,300Kg/$\textrm{mm}^2$.