Structure and Properties of Burnished and Nitrided AISI D2 Tool Steel

Abstract

D2 belongs to traditional steels, frequently used in metalworking industry. Shot peening and nitriding are known to improve the wear resistance of D2. In this work we focus on processes of slide burnishing and industrial low temperature gas nitriding. The D2 steel specimens were first subjected to heat treatments (HT) prescribed by the manufacturer, turning (T), then burnishing (B) and nitriding (N). The reason for turning was achieving appropriate surface roughness. Deformation induced in slide burnishing can be better controlled then in shot peening because of deterministic nature of this process. Four different paths to prepare surfaces were employed: HT + T, HT + T + B, HT + T + N, HT + T + B + N. D2 steel is very sensitive to the final finishing, wear rates vary up to 300 %. Two of our procedures (HT + T + N and HT + T + B + N) are much superior to the others. Moreover, in the HT + T + N case, apparently the surface fatigue scaling off takes place. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.21.4.7224