The effect of thermocycling liquid boronizing on the thickness of the boride layer and the transition zone

Abstract

Boronizing is a thermo-diffusion surface treatment, which is defined as enrichment of the surface of a workpiece with boron by means of thermo-chemical treatment. The processes are based on chemical or electrochemical reactions between the boron source and the respective base metal. Boron sources or boronizing compounds are solid, liquid or gas. Boride coatings, or the formation of boride compounds near the surface have been achieved by: (a) chemical methods; using gas boronizing agents, by immersion in molten salts, electrolysis and by pack cementation with powders; (b) physical methods; such as boron ion implantation, physical vacuum deposition, sputtering and ion plating. The methods of thermocycling treatment are used for intensification of the diffusion processes and forming more uniform microstructures and grain refinement. Krishtal and Kenis reported that the diffusion processes are accelerated with increasing grain boundary length, vacancy concentration, dislocation density inside the grains, and stress gradients in the thermocycling treatment. In practice, the type of structure favoring the intensification of diffusion processes is obtained using thermocycling treatment (TCT), either as a preliminary treatment before thermo-chemical treatment (TChT) or as a combined process before and during the thermochemical treatment. The steel is usually heated to 30-50 C above Ac[sub 1]more » and cooled to 50-100 C below Ar[sub 1]. Such treatment achieves an increase in the diffusion layer thickness, grain refinement and formation of a polygonal structure in the bulk of the metal. The combined use of TCT and TChT was studied during carburization of steel with a solid carburizer. It was demonstrated that, at the same duration of isothermal treatment (15 h), 5 cycles of 880-750 C, TCT produce grain size No. 5-6 in the bulk and grain size No. 9-10 in the diffusion layer, while the thickness of that layer increases 1.5 times. Improved fatigue resistance was also recorded.« less