EVALUATION OF THE WEAR BEHAVIOR OF NITRIDE-BASED PVD COATINGS USING DIFFERENT MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING METHODS

Abstract

In this study, AISI 7131 (16MnCr5) case-hardened steel specimens were prepared in two groups, carbonitrided and without heat treatment, and the specimen surfaces were coated with three different coating materials (CrN, TiA1N and TiN) as a single layer using the physical vapor deposition (PVD) cathodic arc method. The wear behaviors of the coated specimens were tested with the micro-abrasion method. The test results of the micro-abrasion wear tests were analyzed with Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques to determine the combination of coating and heat treatment that yields the lowest wear rate. According to the analyses conducted with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Multiple Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) and Compromise Programming (CP) MDCM techniques, the TiA1N coating exhibited the best wear performance. The MAUT and CP methods produced an identical ranking of the alternatives, whereas a slight deviation was found in the ranking with the TOPSIS method. Uncoated and CrN-coated specimens exhibited the worst wear performance of all the MCDM methods.