AEM-investigation of ceramic coatings on hard metals
To improve their working life, hard metal tools are coated with ceramic protective coatings by means of chemical vapour deposition (CVD). Generally, several layers are deposited, e.g. titaniumcarbide, titaniumnitride, titaniumcarbonitride and aluminiumoxide with thicknesses ranging from some 10 nm to some μm.The understanding of mechanical properties of the coatings is dependent on gaining a knowledge of both the interfaces and the structure of the coatings involved. The coating properties are, in turn, dependent on the coating deposition parameters. A detailed understanding of the influence of these parameters on the mechanical and chemical properties of the multilayer/substrate combination is therefore required.The structure and morphology of the multilayer coatings have been already investigated by using optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), whereas transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was hitherto only applied to the study of single TiC or Al2O3 coatings.For TEM-investigations cross-sections must be taken through the multilayer coating and the cemented carbide substrate. In our investigations, a method of preparation described by Newcomb et al.