ThinLayerAnalysis
Determination of the coating thickness of a titanium nitride (TiN)
coated drill bit
Titanium
nitride (TiN) is widely used as a coating on engineering components.
TiN can be easily recognised by its
attractive gold
coloured appearance which imparts significant improvement in
performance of HSS cutting tools, both because of its greater hardness
and low friction, improving cutting and reducing
tool wear.
This analysis was undertaken on a commercially available TiN coated
6.5mm drill bit using a 30mm ball.
TiN
coated 6.3mm twist drill
Magnified ball
crater on
drill, the total length is just over 1mm.
The
image
of the crater shows a distinct wavy perimeter and this is directly
attributable to the wavy nature of the surface roughness,
thus,
the crater not only gives coating thickness information but also
indicates the quality of the surface finish.
Measurement of the crater yields a TiN coating thickness of 4 microns.