Corrosion resistance of the vacuum arc deposited Ti, TiN and TiO2 coatings on large area glass substrates

An industrial installation for vacuum arc deposition is presented. Its potential in the field of decorative coatings for large area glass sheets is demonstrated. In particular it is possible to deposit patterned coatings through a polymeric textile mask. The ability to deposit uniform multilayer coatings having interference colours onto large silicate glass sheets is shown. Titanium, titanium nitride and titanium dioxide coatings on silicate glass have been characterized in terms of composition and corrosion resistance. Depth profiling was achieved with the aid of Auger electron spectroscopy. The corrosion resistance of TiN coatings is higher than that of TiO2. The corrosion resistance of vacuum arc deposited TiN coatings on glass was higher than that of TiN coatings produced by direct current reactive sputtering and plasma assisted chemical vapour deposition. Mask-deposited TiN coatings do not show any signs of accelerated corrosion along the border between the coated and uncoated glass.