Failure and adhesion characterization of tungsten-carbon single layers, multilayered and graded coatings

摘要

Hard multilayered and graded coatings based on a stacking arrangement of ductile layers and hard layers appear to be promising wear- or erosion-resistant coatings. To optimize the architecture of the protective coatings, the mechanical behaviour of the films has to be first investigated through basic mechanical tests before being subjected to specific tests. This paper reports a qualitative and comparative study of the adhesion and failure mechanisms of tungsten-carbon single layers, multilayered and graded coatings by means of scratch tests.