The
cavitations erosion performance of TiN film plated on AISI-1045 steel substrate by cold cathode ion plating was investigated
on a newly developed magnetostrictive
cavitations erosion tester. The cavitation erosion process and mechanism were analyzed, and the influence of the hardness and thickness of the
TiN coating on the cavitation-erosion performance was explored. It was found that the ion-plated TiN coating had much better resistance to cavitation-erosion and was thus applicable to protect the mild steel from the cavitation-erosion. The cavitation-erosion resistance of the TiN coating increased greatly with increasing hardness and thickness, but the dependence of the cavitation-erosion resistance on the coating thickness became margin when the coating thickness rose above 4.5 μm. The cavitation-erosion of the TiN coating initially occurred at the surface defects such as the soft particles and micro-cavities, and it progressed into weak particles peeling off, concave formation, delamination, and localized fracture, corresponding to the four stages of the cavitation-erosion.