Four point bending fatigue tests were carried out using martensitic stainless steel with TiN
film deposited at five different deposition rates by dynamic ion mixing process in order to investigate
the influence of deposition rate on the fatigue strength. As a result, the fatigue limit clearly increased
by the deposition at appropriate conditions. However, the deposition by other conditions resulted in
the degradation of fatigue strength. This is caused by the decrease of threshold stress intensity factor
after TiN deposition and the difference of defect distribution in the film. In addition, the crack
propagation rate was increased in low stress intensity factor range by the deposition of TiN film.