Corrosion Behaviour of Steel Nitrided and Nitrocarburized in Gas, Respectively

Abstract

Nitriding treatment is well known as one of the corrosion protection methods for steels as well as a way to prevent wear and fatigue. Initially, salt bath nitrocarburizing was popular, but recently, gas nitriding, gas nitrocarburizing, plasma nitriding and so on have come to be used more often because of their superior nitriding ability. In the case of nitriding, only nitrogen (N) diffuses into the steel, but in the case of nitrocarburizing, both nitrogen and carbon (C) diffuse into the steel. General speaking, nitriding includes all the treatments mentioned above. The corrosion behavior of nitride carbon steels has been understood mainly by salt bath or gas nitrocarburizing treatments1)-4).However, recently, nitriding is mainly applied to parts for things such as automobiles which need protection from wear and fatigue, and is seldom used for parts which need corrosion resistance. The present paper is to remind researchers again that nitrided steels show good corrosion resistance.Therefore, the comparison of various thicknesses of nitride layers as well as the comparison between nitride layers on steel has been carried out in this examination, using the salt spray corrosion test method. The effect of oxidation treatment after nitriding was also investigated.