Comparison of Fatigue Characteristic for AISI 1039 Steel with Surface Treatment

Wear and fatigue resistance in steel components used in various industries can be improved by surface treatments. Coatings systems which are used for improving the mechanical properties, generally, decreased the components fatigue life due to micro cracks, that propagate through the substrate , it is possible to improve the fatigue resistance of a component by the application of shot peening treatment, whose compressive residual stresses delay or eliminate the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks. The aim of this study is to obtain the fatigue limit of untreated, shot peened, and hard chromium coating of medium carbon steel AISI 1039 and comparison between them. Fatigue tests were carried out using small samples with 4 mm diameter, with hard chromium layer of (47.1) ?m thick. Rotating-bending fatigue test was carried out on samples after shot peening with steel balls of about 20 minutes peening time. Experimental results showed that hard chromium electroplating decreased the fatigue life and fatigue limit in comparison with the uncoated steel. As the highest thickness for coating was 23?m. On the other hand, Shot peening Results indicated that the fatigue strengths of samples are increased and the highest fatigue limit was (298.566Mpa) after treated the samples by shot peening for 20 minutes.