Electrospark Graphite Alloying of Steel Surfaces: Technology, Properties, and Application

Abstract

Regularities in the influence of processing time and discharge energy on the thickness, microhardness and roughness of carburized cases during electrospark graphite alloying of steel surfaces are studied and quantitative data on them are obtained. The thickness of the strengthened layer increases with gains in discharge energy and alloying time. Specimens of 40Kh, 38KhMYuA, 40KhN2MYuA, 30Kh13, Armco iron, 12Kh18N10T steels and 20 steel, as well as EGe-4 graphite are studied. The tests were carried out using the following devices: EILV-8А, EILV-9, Elitron-22А, and Elitron-52А, which provide discharge energy in the range from 0.1 to 6.8 J. Experiments show that case depth and microhardness under the same process conditions are differ significantly for various steel grades. Case depth increases with higher initial carbon contents in steel. The greater the discharge energy, the greater this difference is. Wear tests show that the method of nonabrasive ultrasonic finish processing after graphite electrospark alloying is effective, and it allows increases in the wear resistance of specimens by a factor of 7.8 for 40Kh steel and by a factor of 11.5 for 12Kh18N10T steel. Research confirms that the stage electrospark alloying of the surface of a specimen after carbonization with a graphite electrode effectively decreases roughness. Discharge energy is lowered at each stage. The stage graphite electrospark alloying of the 38KhMYuA steel case allowed decreases in the surface roughness from R а = 11.9–14.0 μm to 0.8–0.9 μm. Industrial tests show that graphite electrospark alloying offers can accomplish a number of practical tasks.