Wear behavior of plasma nitrided AISI 420 stainless steel

Abstract Martensitic AISI 420 stainless steel was plasma nitrided using a DC N2 – H2 pulsed discharge, after thermal treatment at two different tempering temperatures. Sliding wear behavior was determined by means of a ball-on-disk tribometer at room temperature and without lubrication. Wear volume was calculated from the information provided by an optical profilometer and wear scars were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy. The results indicated that the nitrided samples exhibited improved wear resistance when compared to the untreated specimens, but corrosion resistance was diminished due to the presence of the outer nitrided layer. However, when this layer was removed mechanically considerable improvement in the corrosion resistance was achieved without impairing the wear resistance of the whole system, which was 200 % higher compared to the wear resistance of the non-nitrided specimens.

[1]  D. Hirsch,et al.  Microstructure of nitrogen implanted stainless steel after wear experiment , 2007 .

[2]  P. Corengia,et al.  Microstructure and corrosion behaviour of DC-pulsed plasma nitrided AISI 410 martensitic stainless steel , 2004 .

[3]  C. Li,et al.  Sliding wear properties of active screen plasma nitrided 316 austenitic stainless steel , 2004 .

[4]  M. Fewell,et al.  Characteristics of martensitic stainless steel nitrided in a low-pressure RF plasma , 2003 .

[5]  P. I. John,et al.  A study of martensitic stainless steel AISI 420 modified using plasma nitriding , 2002 .

[6]  W. Monteiro,et al.  Surface hardening by plasma nitriding on high chromium alloy steel , 2001 .

[7]  M. Staia,et al.  Behavior of the pulsed ion nitrided AISI 4140 steel/CVD TiN coatings as tribological pair , 2000 .

[8]  K. Rie,et al.  Improvement of the mechanical properties of austenitic stainless steel after plasma nitriding , 2000 .

[9]  M. Fewell,et al.  The nature of expanded austenite , 2000 .

[10]  Thierry Czerwiec,et al.  Low-temperature plasma-assisted nitriding , 2000 .

[11]  A. Batchelor,et al.  Effect of lubrication by mineral and synthetic oils on the sliding wear of plasma nitrided AISI 410 stainless steel , 1998 .

[12]  C. V. Cooper,et al.  Observation of a compound layer with very low friction coefficient in ion-nitrided martensitic 410 stainless steel , 1998 .

[13]  A. Ricard,et al.  Progress in the analysis of the mechanisms of ion nitriding , 1995 .

[14]  T. Bell,et al.  Load Bearing Capacity of Plasma Nitrided Steelunder Rolling–Sliding Contact , 1990 .