A Study on Wear and Corrosion Properties of Plasma Carburized Austenitic Stainless Steel

Austenitic stainless steel (STS304) has been carburized using glow discharge plasma and its microstructure, wear resistance and corrosion property have been investigated. A repeat boost-diffuse carburizing was used as an effective plasma carburizing method. The effective case depth of the plasma carburized specimens was increased with the carbon concentration at the surface area. The specimens prepared by 3 hours plasma carburizing under $600^{\circ}C$ did not have the standard hardness for the effective case depth, but the specimen prepared by 11 hours plasma carburizing at $500^{\circ}C$ had nearly the same hardness with the specimen plasma carburized for 3 hours at $800^{\circ}C$. The wear resistance increased with temperature but the corrosion properties of the specimens prepared over $600^{\circ}C$ decreased rapidly due to the grain boundary sensitization. However, the specimen plasma carburized for 11 hours at $500^{\circ}C$ had nearly the same wear resistance with the specimen plasma carburized for 3 hours at $800^{\circ}C$ without deterioration of corrosion property. This could be resulted from the fact that the microstructure of the specimen plasma carburized for 11 hours at $500^{\circ}C$ was composed of martensite and austenite, because a partial martensite transformation was occurred only in the specimen plasma carburized for 11 hours at 50$0^{\circ}C$.

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