Abstract
This work presents investigations of cavitation resistance of X5CrNi18-10 austenitic stainless steel after alloying its surface by CO2 laser beam. Laser beam machining was performed in two variants. In the first case, surface layer was enriched with TiC in amount of 1.55 % wt. and in the second one in amount of 3.97 % wt. The obtained results revealed that content of 3.97 % wt. TiC caused an increase of plastic deformations resistance of surface under the cavitation loading and simultaneous increase in embrittlement of alloyed layer.