Study of Cavitation Erosion Experiments on Thermally Oxidized Rutile Phase TiO<SUB>2</SUB> Films on Stainless Steel

A technique to deposit titanium films with rutile-TiO2 layer at the top was carried out in two steps: the deposition of titanium by means of cathodic vacuum arc (CVA) followed by a thermal oxidation technique was investigated. As a result, well adhering rutile films occurred in the near surface region. The uncoated and coated substrates were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The presence of rutile phase titanium dioxide and titanium metal was confirmed by XRD. Cavitation erosion was used to investigate the protective adhesion properties of these coatings. Cavitation erosion tests confirmed that rutile TiO2 films with a Ti inter layer adhere well to stainless steel substrates and protect the substrate from erosion.