Abstract Electroless Ni-P-Zr films are deposited onto Al substrates. Effect of different pre-treatments on the subsequent chemical plating. XRD analysis shows that the Ni-P-Zr film is amorphous. Grey-Taguchi shows that the Ni-P-Zr coating exhibits a friction coefficient of 0.35, a corrosion potential of –0.60 V, a Vickers hardness of 582.9 HV, and a fatigue life of 52 times. A comparison of fatigue failure mechanisms for the uncoated substrate and the electroless Ni-P-Zr coating is conducted under high-strain low-cycle fatigue loading. The results confirm that the coating eliminates crack initiation and propagation and increases the fatigue life of the specimens.
Chuang et al. (2026) studied this question.