Rolling contact fatigue and mechanical properties of titanium carbide film synthesized on bearing steel surface

Abstract

The effect of plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIII&D) titanium carbide (TiC) film on the rolling contact fatigue (RCF) life of coated on AISI52100 bearing steel surface is studied experimentally. Testing include plan-view optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), friction and wear behaviors, rolling contact fatigue life and nano-indentation measurements. XRD patterns show that titanium carbide phase is formed in the film, and the microhardness of treated samples is higher than that of substrate. Rolling contact fatigue failure tracks were observed using conventional light microscope. Surface wear and adhesive delamination existed. Results indicate that the maximum RCF life of the treated sample prolong by 6.5 times at a Hertzian stress level of 5.1 GPa and 90% confidence level, respectively. Comparison with the substrate, the maximum microhardness of treated specimen is increased by 28.4%. The friction coefficient decreased from 0.95 to 0.15 under identical wear conditions. This remarkable fatigue performance appears to be due to a combination of improved microstructure, adhesion, hardness and surface topography. Therefore, the PIII&D is regarded as one of the promising technologies for improving the RCF life of bearing.