Tribological Testing of Anti‐Adhesive coatings for Cold Rolling Mill Rolls—Application to TiN‐Coated Rolls

Roll life is a major issue in cold strip rolling. Roll wear may result either in too low roll roughness, bringing friction below the minimum requested for strip entrainment; or it may degrade strip surface quality. On the contrary, adhesive wear and transfer ("roll coating", "pick up") may form a thick metallic deposits on the roll which increases friction excessively and degrades strip surface again [1]. The roll surface, with the help of a materials-adapted lubricant, must therefore possess anti-wear and anti-adhesive properties. Thus, High Speed Steeel (HSS) rolls show superior properties compared with standard Cr-steel rolls due to their high carbide surface coverage. Another way to improve wear and adhesion properties of surfaces is to apply hard metallic (hard-Cr) or ceramic coatings. Chromium is renowned for its excellent anti-wear and anti-adhesive properties and may serve as a reference. Here, as a first step towards alternative, optimised coatings, a PVD TiN coating has been deposited on tool steels, as previous attempts have proved TiN to be rather successful in cold rolling experiments [2,3]. Different tribological tests are reported here, giving insight in both anti-adhesive properties and fatigue life improvement.