Decorative coatings by PVD on ceramics.

During the last years PVD coatings has been used for decorative purposes on ceramics and other substrates. Standards layers like TiN, CrN, TiCN, etc, give us the possibly of obtaining a wide range of colours, with a good mechanical, chemical properties. This paper gathers the works carried out in the Center of Advance Surface engineering of AIN during the three last years in the field of the decorative coatings. Different layer have been deposited by means of a METAPLAS 232 PVD equipment. A complete chemical and mechanical characterisation have been carried out on the different deposited layers like ultramicroindentation, scratch tests, wear resistance and GDOES.