Surface metallurgical and tribological characteristics of TiN-coated bearing steels

The rolling contact fatigue (RCF) characteristics of an aerospace bearing steel 440C coated with TiN films of various thicknesses are studied. The wear and corrosion properties of the film-substrate system are examined as well as how these properties correlate with the RCF behavior. It is found that TiN coatings with thicknesses below 1 micron resulted in significant improvements in the RCF lives of base steel substrates under both mild and heavy loading conditions.