Abstract
This study has been conducted to establish the carburizing characteristics of low carbon alloy steels with varying amount of Ni element gas-carburized for 2 hours at $930^{\circ}C$ in an atmosphere of 94% $N_2$-6% $C_3H_8$ gas mixture with some changes in gas pressure passing through the diffusion plate in the fluidized-bed furnace. The results obtained from the experiment are as follows : (1) Optical micrograph has shown that the carburized layer consists of retained austenite and plate martensite and that retained austenite increases as the pressure of gas mixture passing through the diffusion plate as well as Ni content increase. (2) Chemical analysis has shown that carbon potential increases and carburizability is also improved due to a less degree of fluidization as the pressures of gas mixtures passing through the diffusion plate increase, resulting in, however, a severe formation of soot, and the gas pressure is necessarily regulated. (3) It has been revealed that carbon concentration hardness values at a given distance measured from the surface within the carburized case. Increase with increasing the pressure of gas mixtures passing through the diffusion plate and decrease with increasing Ni content. (4) The effective case depth has been shown to almost linearly increase as the pressure of gas mixtures passing through the diffusion plate is increased and to decrease with increasing Ni content.
