Development of Decorative and Corrosion Resistant Coatings for the Surface Refinement of Magnesium Alloys by Plasma-based Methods

Within the presented study, the economic potential of PVD-coatings for the surface refinement and protection of Mg-alloys is fully examined. The research includes the introduction of new pre-treatment methods by plasma and chemical polishing, followed by corrosion-inhibiting PVD-coating based on TiMgAlN and thin decorative PVD-finish-film consisting of Nb. Anodic oxidation of the PVD-finish film guarantees the full colour palette by interference effects. It will be shown that chemical and plasma polishing can be applied for the surface pretreatment of magnesium alloys. The TiMgAlN coated magnesium alloys withstand the 96 h salt spray test without any significant corrosion damage.