PT Journal AU Bakalova, T Petkov, N Bahchedzhiev, H Kejzlar, P Louda, P Durak, M TI Improving the Tribological and Mechanical Properties of an Aluminium Substrate by Deposition of TiCN Coatings SO Manufacturing Technology Journal PY 2017 BP 652 EP 658 VL 17 IS 5 DI 10.21062/ujep/x.2017/a/1213-2489/MT/17/5/652 DE Cathodic arc deposition; TiCN coatings; Aluminium substrate; Coefficient of friction AB The article presents an investigation of the influence of coating deposition parameters, in particular a variation with 50% of both cathodic arc current and bias voltage, on the mechanical and tribological properties of TiCN coatings on an aluminium substrate deposited by the cathodic arc evaporation of metals at a constant gas flow ratio between C2H2 and N2 of 17.65 % / 82.35 %. The determined nanohardness values for the samples examined are in the range of 10 to 23 GPa. Surface morphology and chemical composition were estimated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) of SEM. The tribological behaviour of the TiCN layers was examined using the "Ball-on-Disk" method (ASTM G99-95) and using a ball made of Al2O3 as a counter-part and a load of 10N. The friction coefficient was measured in the range of 0.182 to 0.116. ER