Effect of high-intensity pulsed ion beam irradiation on the tribological property of arc ion-plated TiNbN hard film

The TiNbN hard film have been prepared on high-speed steel by arc ion-plating using seperate targets. The prepared film are irradiated by high-intensity pulsed ion beam(HIPIB) of mixing proton and carbon ions at accelerating voltage of 300 kV with pulse width of 70 ns, at ion current density of 60 A/cm2 on TEMP-6 type HIPIB apparatus. The friction and wear behaviors of non-irradiated and irradiated film are investigated under loads of 300 N and 600 N, respectively. The HIPIB irradiation leads to grain size reduction of the film, by which the hardness of film is enhanced from HK3444 to HK3820, and the bonding strength between film and substrate increases from 59 N to 65 N. The irradiated film has significant improvements in friction and wear characteristics．