The Properties of SilCor® CrN

Chemical Composition
Underlayer: Chromium
Main Layer: Cr, N (optimized ratio), O
Deposition Technology
Sputtering (specific method of physical vapor deposition - PVD)
Deposition temperature: T= 200 oC
Mechanical Properties
Coating thickness: 1 - 10 µm, typical thickness 3 µm
Surface roughness (rms): typical 0,07 µm
Universal hardness: UH = 24 GPa
Vickers hardness: HV0.01 = 1900
Young's modulus: E = 250 GPa
Elastische Deformation: WE/P = 55 %
Mechanical stress (tensile): s = - 0,5 GPa
Coefficient of frication (dry against steel): µ = 0,56
Specific gravity: rho = 6,1 g/cm3
Physical and Chemical Properties
Specific resistivity: 10-2Ωcm
Morphology: nanocrystalline, grain size about 20 nm
Temperature stability: up to 700 oC
Chemical resistance mainly against acids, leaches, salts and oxidizing media
De-coating by means of wet-chemistry
Measurement of mechanical hardness:
A viewgraph is shown of the load-dependent penetration depth for a Vickers-type diamond with increasing load (green line). After reducing the load to zero (red line - decreasing load) there is still penetration due to a plastic deformation of the coating. From this measurement the macroscopic material parameters can be computed, which are given in the inset for the specific film.
 CrN Microhardness
Note: The indicated values refer to measurements of selected, typical sample test specimens. Because of geometric plasma effects the measured characteristics can vary in particular as a function of the size of the substrates. For the exact determination of the coating characteristics the actual coating good of the customer has to be used.