Low-Temperature Salt Bath Nitriding of Steels

Abstract

Nitriding technology has gone a long way, from the old gas nitriding to the relatively recently developed plasma nitriding. The latter has replaced the process of “soft nitriding” in the automotive industry based on nitrocarburizing in cyanide salt baths. It seemed that the high toxicity of the initially used compositions for soft nitriding (Tufftride or Tenifer) should have eliminated salt baths from the industry. However, they are still rather widely used. The replacement of old compositions by nontoxic ones has solved fundamental problems of environment protection. Low-temperature nitriding technology also advanced considerably. Salt bath nitriding is a very active process, more intense than that of gas nitriding and nitrocarburizing including the processes of plasma nitriding. The reactivity of the nitriding medium and the final efficiency of the process with allowance for the cost of the equipment have to be taken into account. An additional advantage of salt bath nitriding is the possibility of treatment of stainless maraging steels. The present work is devoted to comparison of the processes of treatment in a nontoxic salt bath and in a gas medium and discussion of the advantages of nitriding in nontoxic salt baths.