Metal finishing Q&As since 1989
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Titanium Nitride on GSX-R1000 fork legs wore off
adv.:
Q. I have a Suzuki GSX-R1000 which has Titanium Nitride front fork legs. The gold coloring is wearing off after 10000 kms. Suzuki NZ have told me the gold is a colour only and has nothing to do with the Titanium Nitride at all, and that the intended performance properties of the coating is still intact under the gold coloring. The idea behind the Titanium Nitride is a decrease in friction, or Stiction as they like to call it. Can anyone confirm the Gold is colour only or is it (as I think) the actual Titanium Nitride.
Dan Meredith- Auckland, New Zealand
2002
"Titanium Nitride Coatings on Tool Steels"
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A. Hi Dan. I can't confirm exactly what the titanium nitride is supposed to do in this case, but I can confirm that it is gold in color and that if the surface is no longer gold in color then the surface is no longer titanium nitride :-(  Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
A. Dan, when you are talking about a thin gold colored coating, you are talking about titanium nitride, TiN. Physical vapor deposition, a vacuum process, of TiN has become a pretty common way of giving a gold to brassy color (you can adjust the color by co-depositing ZrN or other similar compounds) that has good lubricity and wear resistance. Yet the color you see is the coating, and when you no longer see the color, you no longer have the coating. It does not penetrate the surface, nor provide any subsurface enhancement. Oh, and 'stiction' is a term we and others use as well, referring to the ease of getting something at rest to move. Good luck!  Lee Gearhart metallurgist - E. Aurora, New York |
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