In the second part of this project, a coating system was deposited in the nitrided and non nitrided H13 substrates. The coating system consisted of a TiN adhesion layer and a TiAlN outer (‘working’) layer. The coating system was deposited by employing PVD cathodic arc evaporation (CAE), according to the Oerlikon Balzers Balinit Futura process. It was attempted to deposit TiAlN/TiN in the specimens in two different total thicknesses: 3.0 and 8.0 μm. The coating system with 3 μm of total thickness, the TiN thickness would be around 0.3 μmwhile in the coating system with 8.0 μmtotal thickness, the TiN
thickness would be around 0.8 μm. The coating system thickness was measured in a JEOL GSM 6360 LV SEM. The adhesion of the TiAlN/TiN coating system on H13 substrates was evaluated using a Rockwell C Indenter (Wilson-Rockwell). The aspect of the HRC indentations was compared with HF patterns [12].