Impact tests of the tungsten coated stainless steels prepared by using magnetron sputtering with ion beam mixing or electron beam alloying treatment

Tungsten films were deposited on stainless steel (SS) with ion beam mixing (IBM) or electron beam alloying (EBA) treatment. The ductile–brittle transition behaviors of the specimens were investigated by means of instrumented Charpy impact test at a series of temperature, and SEM was used to observe the morphology of the cross section. Impact tests show that different treatment methods with W films do not have much influence on crack initiation, while EBA treatment with W films can more effectively prevent crack propagation, namely improve the impact toughness of SS than using IBM treatment. The reason that caused this difference was discussed.