High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtered and High Target Utilization Sputtered W-C based coatings for tribological applications

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) and relatively recently developed High Target Utilization Sputtering (HiTUS) exhibit significant potential in the control of the properties of hard coatings due to additional parameters resulting from higher plasma densities and higher levels of ionization compared to conventional DC magnetron sputtering. The objectives of the work is to investigate the possibilities of HiPIMS and HiTUS technologies in the control of the mechanical and tribological properties of W-C based coatings by means of the modification of the processing parameters. The work includes investigations of the influence of standard parameters such as total power and substrate bias and acetylene content on the changes in hardness, elastic modulus, strength and friction behavior of the coatings and the obtained results are compared with the properties of the conventional DC sputtered W-C coatings.