Abstract
A low temperature plasma nitrocarburizng was implemented on the duplex stainless steel to achieve the enhancement of surface hardness without degradation of its corrosion resistance. Attempts were made to investigate the influence of Pulse frequency and Duty factor of pulsed power in a high Pulse frequency regime on the surface characteristics of the hardened layer. The hardened layer (S-phase) was formed on all of the treated surfaces. Surface hardness reached up to 1300 $HV_{0.1}$ which is about 4.6 times higher than that of the untreated material (280 $HV_{0.1}$). The thickness of the hardened layer tends to increase lightly with the higher Pulse frequency and the higher Duty factor. The corrosion resistance of nitrocarburized duplex stainless steel was almost similar to that of the untreated material. Both the Pulse frequency and the Duty factor do not have a significant influence on the corrosion property of plasma treated duplex stainless steel.
