DOUBLE GLOW PLASMA SURFACE TITANIZING ON AISI 316 STAINLESS STEEL WITH IMPROVED WEAR RESISTANCE: EFFECTS OF PROCESS PARAMETERS

Abstract

Using the double glow plasma surface alloying technique, a titanizing coating with improved wear resistance can be prepared on AISI 316 stainless steel. The purpose of this paper is to investigate process parameter effects by orthogonal array design. Four main factors, titanizing temperature, holding time, voltage difference and electrode distance, are adopted in orthogonal experiments. For each factor, four levels are set. The range analysis is used to investigate the factor and level influences on the coating thickness and specific wear rate. Meanwhile, the analysis of variance method is applied to calculate the contributions of each factor. The results indicate that temperature is most critical. In balancing the coating thickness and the wear property, the optimal process parameters are 950∘C, 3[Formula: see text]h, 200[Formula: see text]V and 18[Formula: see text]mm. Corresponding to the optimal process, the thickness and the specific wear rate of the titanizing coating are 10[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m and 2.609E−05 mm3⋅ N−1⋅ m−1, respectively.