Abstract
Stainless steels, particularly the austenitic stainless grades are widely used in many industries due to good corrosion resistance, but very poor mechanical properties as surface hardness and wear resistance limit its possible use. Plasma nitriding is one of the few ways to increase the surface hardness of these steels, even though this will affect its corrosion resistance. This paper focuses on the description of the mechanical properties of nitrided layers in the two most widespread austenitic stainless steels AISI 304 and AISI 316L. The microstructure and properties of nitrided layers were evaluated by metallography and microhardness measurement. Surface properties of nitrided steels were characterized by Martens hardness. The results show that plasma nitriding created very hard nitrided layers with thickness about 40 μm and microhardness about 1300 HV0.05. Surface hardness measurements have shown that the maximum values for both steels are about 8.5 GPa, but have different behaviour under higher loads, when the AISI 316L nitrided layer began to crack on the surface and sink.
Highlights
Plasma nitriding is one of the few technologies that allow us to increase the surface hardness and abrasion resistance of austenitic steels, and thanks to this surface treatment we can use austenitic stainless steels in other more demanding applications in industries such as chemical, petrochemical food or medical articles. [1–5] The issue of nitrided layers formed on austenitic steels has been intensively solved since the 1990s, when the properties of these layers such as their depth, hardness, abrasion resistance and their influence on the corrosion resistance of steels are investigated. [6–10]
The aim of this paper is to describe the mechanical properties of nitrided layers formed on AISI 316L and 304 austenitic stainless steels
GDOES measurements (Figs. 1, 2) showed that the plasma nitrided layer had a different chemical composition than the layer formed during standard nitriding
Summary
Plasma nitriding is one of the few technologies that allow us to increase the surface hardness and abrasion resistance of austenitic steels, and thanks to this surface treatment we can use austenitic stainless steels in other more demanding applications in industries such as chemical, petrochemical food or medical articles. [1–5] The issue of nitrided layers formed on austenitic steels has been intensively solved since the 1990s, when the properties of these layers such as their depth, hardness, abrasion resistance and their influence on the corrosion resistance of steels are investigated. [6–10]. [1–5] The issue of nitrided layers formed on austenitic steels has been intensively solved since the 1990s, when the properties of these layers such as their depth, hardness, abrasion resistance and their influence on the corrosion resistance of steels are investigated. Another possible application of such treated surfaces is as a transition layer between a soft backing material such as austenitic steels and a very hard and thin PVD coating [11–14]. The aim of this paper is to describe the mechanical properties of nitrided layers formed on AISI 316L and 304 austenitic stainless steels
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