Abstract
Electrospark deposition (ESD) method is a promising process to produce hard and wear–resistant coatings on metallic substrates. In this study, ESD has been successfully applied to deposit TiC_0.7 N_0.3-based cermet coatings on steel substrate. It has been possible to obtain a fully dense and strong adherent coating layer with a thickness of 20 μm. The microstructures of the deposited coatings were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy. In addition, the friction and wear properties of the coatings and substrates were investigated systematically by conducting ball-on-disc sliding wear tests. The experimental results demonstrated that the wear resistance of the steel substrate, which contains a TiCN coating deposited via the ESD process, is noticeably enhanced under the dry sliding wear conditions. In addition, while the microhardness of substrate is 232 H_V on average, the microhardness of the coating reaches 870 H_V onto the surface.

Key words
Electro-spark deposition, titanium carbonitride, micro-hardness, sliding wear.

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