EFFECT OF PLASMA NITRIDING TEMPERATURES ON CHARACTERISTICS OF AISI 201 AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (01) ◽  
pp. 1550084 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUXIN GAO ◽  
SHAOMEI ZHENG

Samples of AISI 201 austenitic stainless steel were produced by plasma nitriding at 350[Formula: see text]C, 390[Formula: see text]C, 420[Formula: see text]C, 450[Formula: see text]C and 480[Formula: see text]C for 5[Formula: see text]h. Systematic characterization of the nitrided layer was carried out in terms of micrograph observations, phase identification, chemical composition depth profiling, surface microhardness measurements and electrochemical corrosion tests. The results show that the surface hardness and the layer thickness increased with increasing temperature. XRD indicated that a single S-phase layer was formed during low temperature ([Formula: see text][Formula: see text]420[Formula: see text]C), while Cr2N or CrN phase was formed besides S-phase when nitrided at 450[Formula: see text]C and 480[Formula: see text]C. The specimen treated at 390[Formula: see text]C presents a much enhanced corrosion resistance compared to the untreated substrate. The corrosion resistance deteriorated for samples treated above 450[Formula: see text]C due to the formation of chromium nitrides.

2016 ◽  
Vol 879 ◽  
pp. 1074-1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Insup Lee

Plasma nitriding was performed on the 2205 duplex stainless steel samples at 400 V with a gas mixture of H2 and N2 for 15 hrs with changing N2 percent, temperature and adding various amounts of CH4. After treatment the behavior of the surface layer was investigated by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, GDOES analysis and micro-hardness testing. Potentiodynamic polarization test was also used to evaluate the corrosion resistance of the samples. With increasing both N2 percentage from 10% to 25% and nitriding temperature from 370°C to 430°C, the thickness of nitrogen expanded austenite (S-phase) layer and surface hardness increase up to 16 μm and 1200 HV0.1 at the treatment temperature of 430°C with 25% N2, but decreases the corrosion resistance due to the formation of Cr2N and γ`(Fe, Cr)4N. Thus in order to further increase the thickness of S-phase layer and the corrosion resistance, the influence of adding various amount of CH4 (1% to 5%) in the nitriding atmosphere was investigated. Adding CH4 in the nitriding atmosphere increases the layer thickness compared with that of nitrided sample. The highest thickness can be obtained at 1 % CH4, but addition of CH4 beyond 1 % slightly decreases the layer thickness. Moreover, when nitrided at 400°C with 10% N2 and 5% CH4 content, best corrosion behavior is obtained which also have around 10 μm layer thickness and about 870 HV0.1 surface hardness.


2018 ◽  
Vol 941 ◽  
pp. 1784-1789
Author(s):  
Insup Lee

The effect of gas content and treatment temperature on the surface characteristics of hardened layers of low temperature plasma nitrided 316L Austenitic Stainless Steel was investigated. The process was performed at fixed processing time at 15Hr and changing the N2content from 10% to 25%, changing the treatment temperature from 370 °C to 430 °C. The surface hardness and the thickness of expanded austenite (S-Phase) layer increase with increasing both temperature and nitrogen content. At 430°C processing temperature and 25% N2content, the S-phase layer thickness increased up to 13 μm and surface hardness increased about 3.5 times of that of untreated sample which is 880 HV0.1(before treatment 250HV0.1hardness). However, the XRD pattern of the this sample shows the presence of γ'-(Fe,Cr)4N precipitation on the surface which is the reason for the increased corrosion current density that results in increased corrosion rate. Thus the corrosion resistance degrades and presents even worst behavior comparing that of before treatment. Therefore, for increasing the corrosion behavior, further research was conducted by fixing the N2content at 10% with changing the CH4content from 0% to 5%. The best results were found when treated at 430°C with 5% CH4content. At this condition the S-phase thickness increase to around 17μm and surface hardness (980 HV0.1) is improved about 3.9 times of the hardness of untreated one. This sample also showed superior corrosion resistance than the other treated samples and the untreated one due to much higher pitting potential.


2008 ◽  
Vol 373-374 ◽  
pp. 296-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Buhagiar ◽  
Han Shan Dong

The novel low temperature plasma alloying technique that simultaneously introduces both nitrogen and carbon into the surface of austenitic stainless steel has been used in the past to create a hybrid N-C S-Phase. This S-Phase layer boasts of high hardness and wear resistance without any detriment to corrosion resistance. In this study, the afore mentioned hybrid N-C S-Phase was successfully implemented in the surface of two medical grade austenitic stainless steels: ASTM F138 and F1586. At an optimum process temperature of 430°C a very hard, 20μm precipitate-free S-Phase layer was created. Anodic Polarization tests in Ringer’s solution showed that the corrosion resistance of this layer was similar to that of the untreated alloys. Both dry-wear and corrosion-wear (Ringer’s) behaviour of the surface treated alloys showed an improvement of more than 350% and 40% respectively when compared to the untreated material.


Lubricants ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoying Li ◽  
Wenbo Dou ◽  
Linhai Tian ◽  
Hanshan Dong

A lean duplex stainless steel, LDX2404, was DC plasma nitrided under a range of treatment conditions. The microstructure characterisation evaluation of the treated samples revealed that a dense, super-hard surface layer can be produced by low-temperature (<450 °C) plasma treatments. The original austenite phase became S-phase and the ferrite phase was supersaturated with nitrogen and ε-Fe3N nitride precipitated from it. When plasma nitriding was carried out at above 450 °C, chromium nitrides precipitated in the surface nitrided layer. Compared to the untreated samples, the surface hardness of the lean duplex stainless steel (DSS) is increased up to four times. The dry wear resistance increased when increasing the treatment temperature. In contrast, the low-temperature treated samples showed the best performance in the electrochemical corrosion and corrosion-wear tests; the performance of the high temperature (>450 °C) plasma nitrided samples was found to be significantly worse than that of the untreated material.


Metals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 366
Author(s):  
Kenzo Sumiya ◽  
Shinkichi Tokuyama ◽  
Akio Nishimoto ◽  
Junichi Fukui ◽  
Atsushi Nishiyama

Low-temperature active-screen plasma nitriding (ASPN) was applied in this study to improve the bending rigidity and corrosion resistance of a small-diameter thin pipe composed of austenitic stainless steel (SUS 304). The inner and outer diameters of the pipe were ϕ0.3 and ϕ0.4 mm, respectively, and the pipe length was 50 mm. The jig temperature was measured using a thermocouple and was adopted as the nitriding temperature because measuring the temperature of a small-diameter pipe is difficult. The nitriding temperature was varied from 578 to 638 K to investigate the effect of temperature on the nitriding layer and mechanical property. The nitriding layer thickness increased with an increase in nitriding temperature, reaching 15 μm at 638 K. The existence of expanded austenite (S phase) in this nitriding layer was revealed using the X-ray diffraction pattern. Moreover, the surface hardness increased with the nitriding temperature and took a maximum value of 1100 HV above 598 K. The bending load increased with an increase in the nitriding temperature in relation to the thicker nitriding layer and increased surface hardness. The nitrided samples did not corrode near the center, and corrosion was noted only near the tip at high nitriding temperatures of 618 and 638 K in a salt spray test. These results indicated that the bending rigidity of the small-diameter thin pipe composed of austenitic stainless steel was successfully improved using low-temperature ASPN while ensuring corrosion resistance.


2014 ◽  
Vol 881-883 ◽  
pp. 1263-1267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuo Zhao ◽  
Liang Wang ◽  
Jiu Jun Xu ◽  
Y. Shan

The duplex stainless steel has better pitting corrosion resistance but lacks of hardness and wear resistance. Therefore, the low temperature nitriding treatment can be used to increase its hardness and wear resistance or to gain more perfect corrosion resistance. The plasma nitriding of SS2205 stainless steel was carried out at temperatures from 693k to 753k for 4 hours at anodic potential. The nitrided samples were analyzed by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, SEM-EDX analysis, microhardness testing, wear and corrosion evaluation. The XRD analysis of all treated samples showed that the nitrogen-expanded austenite phase was formed. Both α and γ phase of the substrate were transformed into γNduring plasma nitriding. Observing the nitrided layers formed on α and γ phase, the ones situated in the austenite were thinner than the ones in the ferrite. This phenomenon was more evident at low temperature, which confirmed that the nitrogen has a higher diffusion rate in the ferrite during plasma nitriding treatment. The surface hardness of nitrided layer was increased with the nitriding temperature. The highest hardness value obtained in this experiment was about 1300 HV0.05which was 4 times as the original sample (380 HV0.05). Furthermore, through the wear and corrosion property tests, it was shown that anodic plasma nitriding improved the wear resistance and corrosion resistance of the duplex stainless steel.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Łępicka ◽  
Małgorzata Grądzka-Dahlke

Abstract Martensitic stainless steels are used in a large number of various industrial applications, e.g. molds for plastic injections and glass moldings, automotive components, cutting tools, surgical and dental instruments. The improvement of their tribological and corrosion properties is a problem of high interest especially in medical applications, where patient safety becomes a priority. The paper covers findings from plasma nitrided AISI 440B (PN-EN or DIN X90CrMoV18) stainless steel corrosion resistance studies. Conventionally heat treated and plasma nitrided in N2:H2 reaction gas mixture (50:50, 65:35 and 80:20, respectively) in two different temperature ranges (380 or 450°C) specimens groups were examined. Microscopic observations and electrochemical corrosion tests were performed using a variety of analytical techniques. As obtained findings show, plasma nitriding of AISI 440B stainless steel, regardless of the process temperature, results in reduction of corrosion current density. Nevertheless, applying thermo-chemical process which requires exceeding temperature of about 400°C is not recommended due to increased risk of steel sensitization to intergranular and stress corrosion. According to the results, material ion nitrided in 450°C underwent leaching corrosion processes, which led to significant disproportion in chemical composition of the corroded and corrosion-free areas. The authors suggest further research into corrosion process of plasma nitrided materials and its degradation products.


Metals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1845
Author(s):  
Francesca Borgioli ◽  
Emanuele Galvanetto ◽  
Tiberio Bacci

Low-temperature nitriding allows to improve surface hardening of austenitic stainless steels, maintaining or even increasing their corrosion resistance. The treatment conditions to be used in order to avoid the precipitation of large amounts of nitrides are strictly related to alloy composition. When nickel is substituted by manganese as an austenite forming element, the production of nitride-free modified surface layers becomes a challenge, since manganese is a nitride forming element while nickel is not. In this study, the effects of nitriding conditions on the characteristics of the modified surface layers obtained on an austenitic stainless steel having a high manganese content and a negligible nickel one, a so-called nickel-free austenitic stainless steel, were investigated. Microstructure, phase composition, surface microhardness, and corrosion behavior in 5% NaCl were evaluated. The obtained results suggest that the precipitation of a large volume fraction of nitrides can be avoided using treatment temperatures lower than those usually employed for nickel-containing austenitic stainless steels. Nitriding at 360 and 380 °C for duration up to 5 h allows to produce modified surface layers, consisting mainly of the so-called expanded austenite or gN, which increase surface hardness in comparison with the untreated steel. Using selected conditions, corrosion resistance can also be significantly improved.


2006 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 125-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Haruman ◽  
Y. Sun ◽  
H. Malik ◽  
Agus Geter E. Sutjipto ◽  
S. Mridha ◽  
...  

In the present investigation, low temperature nitriding has been attempted on AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel by using a laboratory fluidized bed furnace. The nitriding was performed in temperature range between 400°C and 500°C. X-ray diffraction, metallography, and corrosion tests were used to characterize the resultant nitrided surface and layers. The results showed that fluidized bed process can be used to produce a precipitation-free nitrided layer characterized by the S phase or expanded austenite on austenitic stainless steel at temperatures below 500°C. But there exists a critical temperature and an incubation time for effective nitriding, below which nitriding is ineffective. The corrosion behaviour of the as-nitrided surfaces is significantly different from that previously reported for low temperature plasma nitriding. This anomaly is explained by the formation of iron oxide products and surface contamination during the fluidized process.


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