Microstructure and mechanical performance of (AlCrNbSiTiV)N films coated by reactive magnetron sputtering

(AlCrNbSiTiV)N films are prepared on cermet cutter tool substrates using direct current reactive magnetron sputtering with a high-entropy alloy target. The use of a grey based Taguchi method to determine the deposition parameters of (AlCrNbSiTiV)N films has been studied by considering multiple performance characteristics. Taguchi quality design concept with an $$\hbox {L}₉$$ ( $$3⁴$$ ) orthogonal array, signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of variance are used to determine the performance characteristics of the deposition process. The effect of various deposition parameters of (AlCrNbSiTiV)N films on the chemical composition, the microstructure, the morphology, the mechanical performance and cutting performance of the coated cutter in dry machining is determined. The experimental results show a cutter that is coated with (AlCrNbSiTiV)N exhibits less surface roughness (for workpiece) and flank wear (for cutter), so coated cutter tools have a much longer tool life than the uncoated tools. Transmission electron microscopy patterns confirm that the (AlCrNbSiTiV)N films have a polycrystalline face-centred cubic structure. In the confirmation runs, using grey relational analysis, there are improvements of 3.7% in surface roughness, 69.6% in flank wear and 3.2% in elastic recovery. The Rockwell adhesion test categorizes the coatings as class HF1.