Fractographic Study of the Mechanism of Destruction of the Nitrocarburized Layer

In this paper we investigate the nature of the impact fracture of steels 20 and 20Cr specimens in the nitrocarburized layer and in the core. The object of the study were the samples after thermocycling and isothermal nitrocarburizing. As the results showed, the greatest increase in impact ductility is achieved in five cycles of nitrocarburizing. It is shown that the destruction of the hardened layer and the steel core after the isothermal process is quasirectangular in nature. The presence of the diffusion layer treated by modes of thermocycling nitrocarburizing, areas of ductile fracture and quasi-cleavage in the fracture indicates greater intensity of the process of destruction in comparison with the isothermal process, in which areas of intergranular fracture are present and ductile fracture elements are not present in the fracture. Thus, the fractographic study revealed some features of the mechanism of steel destruction after chemical-thermal nitrocarburizing in comparison with the isothermal process. During thermal cycling of steels, a large amount of the ductile component is observed in the fracture. As the results showed, the greatest increase in impact ductility is achieved in five cycles. In steel 20Cr, the impact ductility increases by 2 times, and in steel 20 by 2.6 times. Increasing the number of cycles to 9 leads to a significant reduction in impact ductility. So in steel 20Cr after chemical-thermal nitrocarburizing, the impact ductility values become less than after classical processing. A further increase in the number of cycles leads to an even greater decrease in the impact ductility values.