Abstract
This study investigated the friction and wear characteristics of AlMgB14 and AlMgB14-TiB2 superhard coatings, produced by pulse laser deposition (PLD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD), respectively. Tests were conducted under unidirectional and reciprocating sliding against AISI 52100 bearing steel in both dry and oil-lubricated conditions. The AlMgB14 coating exhibited an encouraging but short-lived low friction stage (u = 0.2) in dry sliding. The AlMgB14-TiB2 coating reduced the wear rates by one order of magnitude for itself and three orders of magnitude for the counterface compared with the uncoated M2 tool steel in dry sliding. This nanocomposite coating also demonstrated significant extension (>2.5X) of the low friction (non-scuffing) stage in a lubricant starvation sliding.
