High-rate carburizing in a glow- discharge methane plasma

Abstract

Carburizing at high temperature (1040°C) in a glow-discharge methane plasma signifi-cantly reduces carburizing time. Sufficient carbon to produce a 1.0 mm case on conven-tional carburizing steels can be introduced in 10 min at methane pressures in the range of 1.3 to 2.7 kPa (10 to 20 Torr). To reduce the carbon concentration at the surface to an acceptable level (007E1.0 wt pct) the plasma carburizing stage is followed by a short (007E30 min) diffusion step. To aid in optimizing the division of time between the carburizing and diffusion stages, and in separating the effects of plasma carburizing and high-temperature diffusion, a computer program was written to model the diffusion equation for appropriate initial and boundary conditions. Both model and experimental results show that a diffusion time/carburizing time ratio of at least 3: 1 is required. The diffusion model indicates that the exceptionally high carburizing rates observed arise from the rapid infusion of carbon into the surface from the plasma, during the carburizing stage and not from anomalously high diffusion rates. Exceptionally uniform cases on surfaces of irregular geometry are achieved, and significant amounts of natural gas are saved owing to both the reduced car-burizing time and the low pressures employed.