Abstract
A286 (AISI 660), an austenitic precipitation hardening stainless steel has good strength and corrosion resistance, but its low hardness restricts their use in applications involving abrasive wear. In order to improve the hardness without loss of corrosion resistance properties of A286 stainless steel, plasma nitrocarburizing process was carried out at temperatures ranging from 350°C to 500°C for 4 and 8h. The gas mixture composition employed during the process was 78% nitrogen, 20% hydrogen and 2% acetylene gas. Plasma was generated using a pulse DC power supply having a frequency of 30kHz.After plasma nitrocarburizing, a dual layer was formed consisting of nitrogen and carbon in the top layer followed by carbon in the bottom layer. Compared with the untreated A286 stainless steel specimens, the microhardness values measured from the plasma nitrocarburized specimens treated at 400 and 450°C increased by a factor of two and three respectively. The electrochemical corrosion behavior of the plasma nitrocarburized A286 specimens has been studied in 3.5wt.% NaCl solution. The results show that specimens treated at 400°C for 4h has better pitting corrosion resistance and higher surface hardness compared with that of the untreated A286 stainless steel. This is mainly attributed to the presence of carbon and nitrogen in the modified layer existing as a solid solution.
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