Deposition of titanium nitride layers by electric arc – Reactive plasma spraying method

▸ Titanium nitride layers deposited by electric arc – reactive plasma spraying method. ▸ Deposition of titanium nitride layers on C45 steel at different spraying distances. ▸ Characterization of the coatings hardness as function of the spraying distances. ▸ Determination of the corrosion behavior of titanium nitride layers obtained. Titanium nitride (TiN) is a ceramic material which possesses high mechanical properties, being often used in order to cover cutting tools, thus increasing their lifetime, and also for covering components which are working in corrosive environments. The paper presents the experimental results on deposition of titanium nitride coatings by a new combined method (reactive plasma spraying and electric arc thermal spraying). In this way the advantages of each method in part are combined, obtaining improved quality coatings in the same time achieving high productivity. Commercially pure titanium wire and C45 steel as substrate were used for experiments. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the deposited coatings are composed of titanium nitride (TiN, Ti2N) and small amounts of Ti3O. The microstructure of the deposited layers, investigated both by optical and scanning electron microscopy, shows that the coatings are dense, compact, without cracks and with low porosity. Vickers microhardness of the coatings presents maximum values of 912 HV0.1. The corrosion tests in 3%NaCl solution show that the deposited layers have a high corrosion resistance compared to unalloyed steel substrate.