Effects of shot peening pre-treatment and plasma nitriding parameters on the structural, mechanical and tribological properties of AISI 4140 low-alloy steel

Abstract

In recent years, hybrid surface treatments which include plasma nitriding combined with pre-shot peening operations have been proposed for the improvement of nitriding efficiency. The main objective of this study is to characterize the effects of dual process on the friction and wear behavior of metallic materials. For this purpose, AISI 4140 steel samples were shot peened at various densities of 16, 20 and 24 A. The pre-treated samples were plasma nitrided at a temperature of 500 °C for 1 and 4 h. The structural and mechanical properties of samples were analyzed by XRD, SEM and microhardness tester. Wear tests were performed under dry sliding conditions to determine the tribological properties of the samples. This study showed that the shot peening treatment formed finer grains, compressive residual stresses on the surface and increased the diffusion kinetics of the samples. The surface hardness and residual stresses increased with increasing shot peening density. It was evidence that the finer grains, increased dislocation density and surface defects increased the case depth obtained from plasma nitriding by enabling easier diffusion of nitrogen. The depth of the diffusion zones in shot peened plus plasma nitrided specimens was found almost two times thicker than that of the diffusion zones in specimens treated only by plasma nitriding. The highest surface hardness values were obtained from pre shot peened and plasma nitrided samples in consequence of the interactive effect from nitride phases/layers and increased surface compressive residual stress. As a result, pre-shot peened plus plasma nitrided samples exhibited higher wear resistance than specimens treated only by shoot peening and hybrid treating in glow a discharge atmosphere.