Plasma sprayed titanium carbide tool steel coating

Claim 1

As a composite article of manufacture, a metal substrate having a thin plasma-deposited adherent coating of a titanium carbide tool steel containing by weight about 10 to 80 percent rounded primary grains of TiC dispersed through a steel matrix making up essentially the balance in an amount ranging from about 90 to 20 percent by weight, said steel martix being selected from the group coNsisting of (A) about 1 to 6 percent Cr, about 0.3 to 6 percent Mo, about 0.3 to 0.8 percent C and the balance essentially iron; (B) about 6 to 12 percent Cr, about 0.5 to 5 percent Mo, about 0.6 to 1.2 percent C, up to about 5 percent W, up to about 2 percent V, up to about 3 percent Ni, up to about 5 percent Co and the balance essentially iron; and (C) a high nickel alloy steel containing about 10 to 30 percent Ni, about 0.2 to 9 percent Ti, up to about 5 percent Al, the sum of the Ti and Al content not exceeding about 9 percent, up to about 25 percent Co, up to about 10 percent Mo, substantially the balance of the matrix being at least about 50 percent iron, the metals making up the matrix composition being proportioned such that when the nickel content ranges from about 10 to 22 percent and the sum Al and Ti is less than about 1.5 percent, the molybdenum and cobalt contents are each at least about 2 percent, and such that when the nickel content ranges from about 18 to 30 percent and the molybdenum content is less than 2 percent, the sum of Al and Ti exceeds 1.5 percent; said matrix of said coating produced from compositions (A), (B) and (C) being characterized metallographically in the as plasma-deposited state by the presence of martensite.