Influence of substrate microstructure on the contact fatigue strength of coated cold-work tool steels

► Assessment of substrate effects on contact fatigue damage of TiN coated tool steels. ► Analysis of damage on coated steels under monotonic and cyclic spherical indentation. ► Spherical indentation technique for assessing failure related with contact phenomena. ► Results provide guidelines for microstructural design of tool steel used as substrate. ► Particularly, for coated tools commonly subjected to repetitive contact loads.