Hongxi Liu

Friction and Wear Behaviors and Rolling Contact Fatigue Life of TiN Film on Bearing Steel by Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation and Deposition Technique

Titanium Nitride (TiN) films were prepared on AISI52100 bearing steel surface by plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIII&D) technique. The as-deposited films have been characterized using a series of test methods. X-ray diffraction (XRD) proves that the surface layer is mainly composed of TiN phase with fee structure. The depth profiles and chemical bonds were analyzed with X-ray photoclectron spectroscopy (XPS) combined with Ar ion etching. Atomic force microscope (AFM) reveals that the TiNFilm has extremely smooth surface, very high uniformity and efficiency of space filling over large areas. The maximum nanohardness (H) and elastic modulus (E) of treated samples is 25GPa and 350GPa, increases by 127.3% and 59.1%. The friction and wear behaviors, rolling contact fatigue (RCF) life of all these samples were also investigated by ball-on-disc and three-ball -rod testers. Results show that the friction coefficient decreases from 0.92 to 0.2. Compared with the untreated substrate, the L 10, L 50, L a and mean life L of treated samples increases by 5.5, 2.8, 2.3 and 2.2 times, respectively. It indicates that PIII&D has been successful in depositing high-quality TiN films on bearing steel components, and beneficial in improving the mechanical properties and RCF life.