Predicting Surface Hardness of Commercially Pure Titanium Under Plasma Nitrocarburizing Based on Experimental Data

Abstract

One of the techniques to improve the surface hardness of commercially pure titanium is by using plasma nitrocarburizing. This paper presents an equation to predict the surface hardness with the variable of the treatment temperature and process time of plasma nitrocarburizing. Experimental studies were first conducted to collect surface hardness at different elevated temperatures with different process time. The prediction equation was then developed by using Lagrange’s Multivariable Interpolation method. It is found that commercially pure titanium surface hardness can be predicted as a function of time and temperature. This equation is able to predict the surface hardness of the experimental data with high accuracy. The errors of the predicted hardness to the experimental results are less than 1 percent.