This paper gives a brief review on the three low temperature plasma surface alloying
processes that have been developed in recent years to engineer the surfaces of austenitic stainless
steels to achieve much enhanced surface hardness and wear resistance, without compromising their
corrosion resistance. These include low temperature plasma nitriding, low temperature plasma
carburizing and the newly developed hybrid process involving the simultaneous incorporation of
nitrogen and carbon to form a dual layer structure. The processing, structural and property
characteristics of each process are discussed briefly in this paper.