With the development of industry, much attention has been paid to lengthening the life span of bearings. As reported in this paper, we investigated the Cr/CrN compound films formed on the specimens of W9Cr4V2Mo bearing steel by ion beam assisted deposition for improving the performance of bearing steels. The Vicker's microhardness, pin-on-disc, electrochemical measurement, XRD and SEM tests were used to characterize and analyze the treated samples.All results indicated that the mechanical properties of the treated samples were good, with the microhardness greater than that of the uncoated specimen, and the wear resistance, the passivity and pitting corrosion resistance increased considerably, the films possessed alternate Cr and CrN compound phases and produced different effects on the improvement of the performance of W9Cr4V2Mo bearing steels with different composing phases.
