Titanium carbide coatings deposited by reactive ion beam-assisted, electron beam–physical vapor deposition

Titanium carbide (TiC), in addition to other transition metal carbides, has excellent wear-resistant properties in machining of stainless and high speed tool steels. TiC was successfully deposited on 304 stainless steel by reactive ion beam-assisted electron beam–physical vapor deposition (RIBA, EB–PVD). The hardness values ranged from 1100 to 3500 VHN0.050 depending on the processing parameters. The surface morphology and degree of texturing were correlated with the processing conditions. Ion bombardment resulted in strong surface and growth texture in primarily the (111) orientation. A change from the (111) orientation to the (200) was observed at high substrate temperatures. Vickers hardness, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) were used to characterize these films.