This paper deals with the effect of electrodeposited zinc and nickel coatings on the fatigue strength of a free cutting steel. This class of materials is frequently used in the mass production, due to their good machinability, in order to reduce the production costs. Moreover, free cutting steels often operate under high wear conditions, for instance in sliding components. Therefore, suitable coatings are usually applied to improve their tribological response. In addition, in many industrial applications, free cutting steels must withstand significantly high fatigue loads, even in corrosive environment. In order to assess the fatigue response, S–N curves and endurance limits at run-out of specimen sets with different features were determined. The tests involved samples with different coatings and plain geometry for comparison purposes. The experimental results, properly set up by tools of Design of Experiment, were statistically processed and compared. The outcome was that no significant difference in terms of fatigue strength between the three specimens set was encountered. It implies that coatings can be suitable to enhance wear resistance without detrimental effects on fatigue.

中文翻译：

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涂层对易切削钢疲劳强度的影响

本文讨论了电沉积锌和镍涂层对易切削钢疲劳强度的影响。这类材料由于其良好的可加工性，经常用于批量生产，以降低生产成本。此外，易切削钢通常在高磨损条件下运行，例如在滑动部件中。因此，通常应用合适的涂层来改善它们的摩擦学响应。此外，在许多工业应用中，易切削钢必须能够承受非常高的疲劳载荷，即使在腐蚀环境中也是如此。为了评估疲劳响应，确定了具有不同特征的试样组跳动时的 S-N 曲线和耐久极限。测试涉及具有不同涂层和平面几何形状的样品以进行比较。通过实验设计工具正确设置的实验结果进行统计处理和比较。结果是在三个试样组之间没有遇到疲劳强度方面的显着差异。这意味着涂层可以适用于提高耐磨性而不会对疲劳产生不利影响。