Nitrogen Supersaturation into AISI420 Mold for Precise Machining

Abstract

The plasma nitriding conditions and processing parameters were controlled to attain the high-density nitrogen ion and NH-radical populations and to form the nitrogen supersaturated layer into AISI420 type martensitic stainless steel mold substrate at 673 K for 14.4 ks and 28.8 ks. Thicker nitrided layer than 80 mm was attained for fine machining of the optical diffraction elements onto this nitrided AISI420 mold surface. The average hardness in this nitrogen supersaturated layer reached 1400 HV. After this hardness testing and microstructure analysis, the machinability test was performed to describe the ductile mode cutting behavior of nitrogen-supersaturated work by using the PCD (Poly-Crystalline Diamond)-chip tool. Higher average nitrogen solute content than 4 mass% was responsible for fine turning by PCD-chip and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition)-diamond coated cutting tools without any damages and for precisely finishing the mold surface with the lower maximum surface roughness than 10 nm on the machined mold surface. The low roughness and homogeneous machined surface profile proved that the nitrogen supersaturated AISI420 series stainless steel was adaptive as a stamping mold of chalcogenide glasses with high dimensional accuracy and demolding capacity.