• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.142-149
• /
• 2010

Austenitic stainless steel is more or less difficult with conventional gas nitriding treatment, but it can be nitrided after appropriate pre-heat treatment. The pretreatment was more effective upon nitriding for austenitic stainless steel than martensitic stainless steel. Both thickness and microhardness measurements indicated that effect of the nitriding treatment was more sensitive in austenitic stainless steel than martensitic stainless steel with nitriding time. Fatigue strength was most increased with SACM 645 steel among three steels.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.337-345
• /
• 2000

As a case hardening process for stainless steels, nitriding is more preferred and widely used than carburizing which deterioates corrosion resistance severely. In order to add the nitrogen into the stainless steels, passive film on the surface must be removed effectively before nitriding. Conventional gas nitriding process is performed in the temperature range of 500 to $600^{\circ}C$ with $NH_3$ gas, which often leads to sensitization of stainless steels. In this study, we tried to activate passive film of austenitic stainless steels by heating at low pressure. ($900^{\circ}C$, $5{\times}10^{-2}$ Torr.) Nitriding was performed at the solution treatment temperature of $1100^{\circ}C$ with nitrogen molecules instead of $NH_3$ gas. An attainable nitrogen content in a case depends on the nitrogen gas pressure at constant nitriding temperature. A case depth is proportional to the square root of solution time, which suggests that inward diffusion of nitrogen follows the Fick's 2nd law. Surface nitrogen atoms are dissolved as interstitial solutes, or precipitated in the form of MN, $M_2N$ nitrides, which increase the case hardeness. Dissolved nitrogen in the case enhances the cavitation resistance of austenitic stainless steels dramatically.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.125-130
• /
• 2008

Conventional plasma carburizing or nitriding for austenitic stainless steels results in a degradation of corrosion resistance. However, a low temperature plasma surface treatment can improve surface hardness without deteriorating the corrosion resistance. The 2-step low temperature plasma processes (the combined carburizing and post nitriding) offers the increase of both surface hardness and thickness of hardened layer and corrosion resistance than the individually processed low temperature nitriding and low temperature carburizing techniques. In the present paper, attempts have been made to investigate the influence of the introduction of Ar gas (0~20%) in nitriding atmosphere during low temperature plasma nitriding at $370^{\circ}C$ after low temperature plasma carburizing at $470^{\circ}C$. All treated specimens exhibited the increase of the surface hardness with increasing Ar level in the atmosphere and the surface hardness value reached up to 1050 HV0.1, greater than 750 $HV_{0.1}$ in the carburized state. The expanded austenite phase (${\gamma}_N$) was observed on the most of the treated surfaces. The thickness of the ${\gamma}_N$ layer reached about $7{\mu}m$ for the specimen treated in the nitriding atmosphere containing 20% Ar. In case of 10% Ar containing atmosphere, the corrosion resistance was significantly enhanced than untreated austenitic stainless steels, whilst 20% Ar level in the atmosphere caused to form CrN in the N-enriched layer (${\gamma}_N$), which led to the degradation of corrosion resistance compared with untreated austenitic stainless steels.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.278-282
• /
• 2004

Effect of pre-treatment on the gas nitriding process of austenitic stainless steels has been investigated and the following results were obtained. Minimum pre-treatment time was decreased to 5min with increasing treatment temperature from $200^{\circ}C$ to $600^{\circ}C$. Surface activation effect by the pre-treatment was maintained in the air up to holding time of 64hr, judging from the analysis result of gas nitrided specimens. The Depth of nitrided layer of STS 304 and 316 stainless steels were ranged from $5{\mu}m$ to $90{\mu}m$ at $440^{\circ}C{\sim}600^{\circ}C$. The X-ray diffraction intensity for austenitic stainless steels were increases as nitriding temperature from $440^{\circ}C$ to $600^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.298-306
• /
• 2009

Gas nitriding and post oxidation were performed on stainless steels and SACM 645 steel. With increasing gas nitriding time, the increasing rate of nitrided layer was most rapid on SACM 645 steel and the nitriding depth of nitrided layer was most narrow on STS 304 steel among three steels. Corrosion resistance was increased with post oxidation on stainless steels and with increasing time the effect of corrosion resistance was decreased to compare with relatively short gas nitriding time. An improvement effect of corrosion resistance was consisted of predominantly on austenitic stainless steel by post oxidation after gas nitriding among three steels and it was relatively less influenced on martensitic stainless steel.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.52 no.4
• /
• pp.194-202
• /
• 2019

A systematic investigation was made on the influence of processing parameters such as gas composition and treatment temperature on the surface characteristics of hardened layers of low temperature plasma nitrided 316L Austenitic Stainless Steel. Various nitriding processes were conducted by changing temperature ($370^{\circ}C$ to $430^{\circ}C$) and changing $N_2$ percentage (10% to 25%) for 15 hours in the glow discharge environment of a gas mixture of $N_2$ and $H_2$ in a plasma nitriding system. In this process a constant pressure of 4 Torr was maintained. Increasing nitriding temperature from $370^{\circ}C$ to $430^{\circ}C$, increases the thickness of S phase layer and the surface hardness, and also makes an improvement in corrosion resistance, irrespective of nitrogen percent. On the other hand, increasing nitrogen percent from 10% to 25% at $430^{\circ}C$ decreases corrosion resistance although it increases the surface hardness and the thickness of S phase layer. Therefore, optimized condition was selected as nitriding temperature of $430^{\circ}C$ with 10% nitrogen, as at this condition, the treated sample showed better corrosion resistance. Moreover to further increase the thickness of S phase layer and surface hardness without compromising the corrosion behavior, further research was conducted by fixing the $N_2$ content at 10% with introducing various amount of $CH_4$ content from 0% to 5% in the nitriding atmosphere. The best treatment condition was determined as 10% $N_2$ and 5% $CH_4$ content at $430^{\circ}C$, where the thickness of S phase layer of about $17{\mu}m$ and a surface hardness of $980HV_{0.1}$ were obtained (before treatment $250HV_{0.1}$ hardness). This specimen also showed much higher pitting potential, i.e. better corrosion resistance, than specimens treated at different process conditions and the untreated one.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
• /
• v.46 no.6
• /
• pp.357-362
• /
• 2008

The 2-step low temperature plasma processes (the combined carburizing and post-nitriding) were carried out for improving both the surface hardness and corrosion resistance of AISI 316L stainless steel. The effects of processing time and temperature on the surface properties during nitriding step were investigated. The expanded austenite (${\gamma}_N$) was formed on all of the treated surface. The thickness of ${\gamma}_N$ was increased up to about $20{\mu}m$ and the thickness of entire hardened layer was determined to be about $40{\mu}m$. The surface hardness reached up to $1,200HV_{0.1}$ which is about 5 times higher than that of untreated sample ($250HV_{0.1}$). The thickness of ${\gamma}_N$ and concentration of N on the surface were increased with increasing processing time and temperature. The corrosion resistance in 2-step low temperature plasma processed austenitic stainless steels was enhanced more than that in the untreated austenitic stainless steels due to a high concentration of N on the surface.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.78-82
• /
• 2003

Nitrided compound layer and diffusion layer structure were observed by SEM. The compound layer and the constituent of nitrided surface of STS 304, STS 316, STS 410 and SACM 645 steel were analysed using EMPA and XRD respectively. The depth of nitriding layer that is obtained from similar nitriding condition decrease in the order of SACM 645 > STS 410 > STS 316 > STS 304. Result of phase transformation of the nitrided at $550^{\circ}C$ by XRD analysis were as follows; The austenitic stainless steel was mainly consist of $Cr_2N$ accompanying with $Fe_4N$ and $Fe_{2-3}N$ phase and martensitic stainless steel was mainly consist of present $Fe_{2-3}N+Cr_2N$ phase, but SACM 645 steel was $Fe_{2-3}N$ phase present only.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.258-267
• /
• 1998

For the purpose of investigating the growth characteristics and composition of nitrides, gas nitridings of the austenitic stainless steel, STR 36 heat resisting steel and martensitic stainless steel are investigated at the temperature ranges between $500^{\circ}C$ and $675^{\circ}C$ for 5hours under the $75%NH_3+5%CO_2+20%$Air gas atmosphere. When gas nitriding the austentic stainless steel and STR 36 heat resisting alloy, the abnormal growth behavior of compound layer deviating from the conventional diffusion law with increasing temperature appears, while the compound layer of martensitic stainless steel shows the normal diffusional growth behavior. From the examination of microstructure, X-ray diffraction and hardness test, it is concluded that the abnormal growth behavior of compound layer with increasing temperature induces from the formation and dissolution of CrN and ${\gamma}^{\prime}-Fe_4N$ at the nitriding temperature ranges of $600{\sim}650^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.311-317
• /
• 2007

This study examined the phase changes, nitride precipitation and variation in mechanical properties of STS 304, STS 321 and STS 316L austenitic stainless steels after high temperature gas nitriding (HTGN) at temperature ranges from $1050^{\circ}C\;to\;1150^{\circ}C$. Fine round type of $Cr_2N$ nitrides were observed in the surface layers of 304 and 316L steels, even more in STS 321. Additionally, square type of TiN was found in STS 321 austenitic matrix too. As a result of many precipitates in the surface layer of the STS 321, it was seen $370{\sim}470Hv$ hardness variation depending on the HTGN treatment conditions, and interior region of austenite represented 150Hv. The surface hardness value of STS 304 and STS 316L showed $255{\sim}320Hv$, respectively. The nitrogen content was shown 0.27, 1.7 and 0.4% respectively at the surface layers of the STS 304, STS 321 and STS 316L. After the HTGN it was shown the improvement of corrosion resistance of the STS 321 and STS 316L compared with solution annealed steels in the solution of 1N $H_2SO_4$ whereas the STS 304 was not.