Abstract: The changes in structure and the hardness of two electroless deposited Ni-P alloy coatings (with P content of 1.5 and 9.5 wt pct) with heat treatment have been studied by XRD and TEM. The deposits containing 1.5 wt pct P can be represented as an fcc NiP supersaturated solid solution of 5~10 nm microcrystallites. whereas the deposits containing 9.5 wt pct P are amorphous. The heat treatment process induces crystallization of amorphous Ni to Ni phosphides and fcc Ni.Both of the deposits reach maximum hardness after annealing at 400℃ for 1 h. All coated steel specimens are inferior in fatigue strength to uncoated steel specimens mainly due to the poor fatigue resistance of the coating itself