Annealing effect on tribological property of arc-deposited TiN film on 316L austenitic stainless steel

• TiN film was coated on 316L stainless steel by cathodic arc evaporation system.
• TiN film after annealing could form an outer-layer of Ti–N–O film.
• TiN film annealed at 500 °C had a well improvement in wear resistance.

In this work, TiN film was deposited onto 316L austenitic stainless steel by a cathodic arc evaporation technique, and then the coated specimens were annealed at the different temperatures. Microstructural analysis, nanoindentation tests, and wear tests were performed for understanding the effect of annealing temperature on composition, microstructure, and mechanical behavior of the coatings. The results showed when the TiN film was annealed at 500 °C for 2 h, a dense Ti–N–O thin film of about 0.5 μm was produced in the outer-layer, consisting of Rutile-TiO2 and TiN phases. Such the annealed coating had the most uniform chemical composition as well as the highest H/E value in comparison to other unannealed and annealed coatings. 316L stainless steel with the optimal annealed coating not only reduced the friction coefficient from 0.68 to 0.25, but also remarkably improved the adhesion wear resistance.