Chemical vapor deposition of TiC on tool steels have been investigated for increasing their hardness and wear resistance. Deposition is performed on the STP11, SKH9, and STS304 steels using $TiCl_4$, $CH_4$, and $H_2$ gaseous mixture at different temperatures and mole ratio of $OH_4$ to $TiCl_4$.
It is found that the deposition rate, the microhardness, and the wear resistance are affected by the deposition variables and composition of steels. Experimental results shows that the chemical vapor deposition reaction of TiC is a thermally activated process. The apparent activation energy is about 60 Kcal/mole and this indicates that the deposition reaction of TiC is controlled by surface reaction. The mechanical properties of deposited TiC such as microhardness and wear resistance have close relationship with microstructure and preferred orientation of grain.
It is believed that the random orientation with fiber grain structure increases the microhardness and improves the wear resistance of chemically vapor deposited TiC.
