Fatigue strength of bandsaws with hard coatings

As hard coatings become more commonly used for improving the wear resistance of cutting tools, it is of interest to know whether fatigue resistance is impaired. Fatigue cracking may be a significant failure mode in bandsaws, which are flexed over the driving pulleys. A reversed bending machine was used for testing specimens of bandsaw strip. It was found that fatigue strength was raised by titanium nitride coating but was reduced by chromium electroplating.