Improving of shaft steel materials properties using ion nitriding

Abstract

During operation, shaft steel always contacts with other components, so this material will erode gradually and will be accelerated if this component used in corrosive environment. Finally, the performance of the components to be worse. To improve the quality of the surface components, an ion nitriding technique can be applied. In this research, ion nitriding process was carried out at 300°C, 350°C, 400°C, 450°C and 1.6 mbar for 4 hours. It can be concluded that generally by increasing the temperature, the hardness increases and at 450°C reached the highest value in order of 297.86 VHN, while the hardness of raw materials is 98.66 VHN or increases by factors 3, the wear decreases from 60.3 × 10−9 mm2/kg to 26.8 × 10−9 mm2/kg or there is an increasing in wear resistance by factor 2.25, and corrosion rate decreases from 4.2465 mpy to 0.6748 mpy.From XRD analysis, it is observed the formed phase are Fe2N and Fe3N. The formation of new phase contributes in improving of hardness, wear, and corrosion resistance.