Titanium nitride (TiN) is a good choice for the improvement in surface hardness of high-speed steel. Unfortunately, it has low adhesion with substrate and exhibits high friction coefficient; as a result it does not provide sufficient protection against sliding wear in metal-to-metal contact. The adhesion problem can be removed by nitriding process, whereas friction coefficient can be reduced by solid lubrication coating. In this study, an attempt is made to synthesize TiN hard coating as well as solid lubrication coating of molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) using magnetron sputtering, along with substrate pre-treatment by cathodic cage plasma deposition using titanium cathodic cage. The cathodic cage plasma nitrided sample exhibits significantly higher surface hardness, which reduced by solid lubrication coating. The nitrided sample depicts the presence of iron nitrides, TiN and nitrogen diffused martensite phases, whereas coated samples shows the presence of MoS₂ and TiN phases. The friction coefficient and machining temperature are dramatically reduced by lubrication coating. This study recommends that the use of cathodic cage plasma nitriding using titanium cathodic cage is beneficial for improved surface hardness, and addition of solid lubrication coating is beneficial for reducing the coefficient of friction and machining temperature by scarifying hardness. As, both the systems are already proven to be appropriate for industrial-scale uses, thus results from this study can be applied for industrial-scale application.

氮化钛（TiN）是改善高速钢表面硬度的好选择。不幸的是，它与基材的粘合性低并且显示出高的摩擦系数。结果，它不能提供足够的保护以防止金属对金属接触中的滑动磨损。可以通过渗氮工艺解决粘附问题，而通过固体润滑涂层可以降低摩擦系数。在这项研究中，尝试合成TiN硬质涂层以及二硫化钼（MoS ₂），使用磁控溅射，以及通过使用钛阴极笼进行阴极笼等离子体沉积的衬底预处理。阴极笼等离子体氮化的样品表现出明显更高的表面硬度，而固体润滑涂层会降低表面硬度。渗氮样品表明存在氮化铁，TiN和氮扩散马氏体相，而涂层样品表明存在MoS ₂和TiN相。通过润滑涂层可以显着降低摩擦系数和加工温度。这项研究建议，采用采用钛阴极保持架的阴极保持架等离子渗氮有利于提高表面硬度，而添加固体润滑涂层有利于通过降低硬度来降低摩擦系数和加工温度。由于这两种系统都已经被证明适合工业规模的应用，因此这项研究的结果可以应用于工业规模的应用。