• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.219-227
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• 2002

This study has been performed to investigate the effect of $CO_2$ content on the growth characteristics of the compound layer, porous layer and corrosion characteristics of carbon steels after gaseous nitrocarburizing in $70%-NH_3-CO_2-N_2$ at $580^{\circ}C$ for 2.5 hrs. The results obtained from the experiment were the thickness of the compound and porous layers increased with increasing $CO_2$ contents. At the same fixed gas composition the thickness of the compound and porous layer increased with increasing carbon content of the specimens. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that compound layer was mainly consisted of ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}(N,C)$ and ${\gamma}^{\prime}-Fe_4N$ as the increased with $CO_2$ contents in atmosphere, compound layer was chiefly consisted of ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}(N,C)$ phase. With increasing $CO_2$ content and total flow rate in gaseous nitrocarburizing, the amount of ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}(N,C)$ phase in the compound layer was increased. The current density of passivity decreased with increasing $CO_2$ content due to the development of porous layer at the out most surface of ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}(N,C)$.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.83-88
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• 2017

The growth of intermetallic compounds is an important factor in the reliability of solar cells. Especially, the temperature change in the soldering process greatly affects the thickness of the intermetallic compound layer. In this study, we investigated the intermetallic compound growth by Sn-diffusion in solder joints of solar cells. The thickness of the intermetallic compound layer was analyzed by IR lamp power and hot plate temperature control, and the correlation between the intermetallic compound layer and the adhesive strength was confirmed by a $90^{\circ}$ peel test. In order to investigate the growth of the intermetallic compound layer during isothermal aging, the growth of the intermetallic compound layer was analyzed at $85^{\circ}C$ and 85% for 500 h. In addition, the activation energy of Sn was calculated. The diffusion coefficient of the intermetallic compound layer was simulated and compared with experimental results to predict the long-term reliability.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.436-441
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• 2000

Plasma nitrocarburising is a thermochemical heat treatment, and can be used for plain carbon steels and low alloy steels to improve wear, corrosion and fatigue resistance. The process is performed on automotive parts, machinery parts and engineering tools. However, it is still facing problems in obtaining a mono $\varepsilon$ phased compound layer. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the possibility of forming a mono $\varepsilon$ phased compound layer using a gas mixture of nitrogen and methane. It was found that high nitrogen contents were essential for the production of $\varepsilon$ phase compound layer and with increasing methane content in the gas mixture, $\varepsilon$ phase compound layer was favoured. In addition, when the methane content was further increased, cementite was observed in the compound layer. $\gamma$' phase was produced after 10 minutes treatment time and cementite was formed in the compound layer resulting in decreasing the thickness of the compound layer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.253-259
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• 2003

In this study, to find out the reason of deterioration in surface roughness of steel and cast iron after Tufftride, it has been investigated on the relation between the surface roughness and various factors such as the evolution of compound layer, surface morphology, and surface hardness, and change of pore ratio in the compound layer during Tufftride at $580^{\circ}C$. It is found that the surface roughness was increased with the evolution of compound layer during Tufftride of steel and cast iron. The change of surface roughness after Tufftride was reduced with decreasing tho content of carbon and cementite ($Fe_3C$) in the materials. in the cast irons, the various shaped graphites that was exposed to the surface should induce the discontinuous growth of the compound layer, and this resulted in the incoherent interfaces between matrix and compound layer and the deterioration of surface roughness. In the steels, the existence of cementites in the matrix resulted in the incoherent interfaces between matrix and compound layer. It is considered that during Tufftride the surface roughness must be mainly influenced by the formation of the incoherent interface between compound layer and matrix that is affected by some factors such as the microstructure, the composition, and the hardness of the matrix.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.215-223
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• 1992

This study has been performed to investigate into some effects of temperature, gas mixing ratio and time on the optical microstructure, hardness and wear characteristics of medium carbon alloy steel treated by plasma nitriding. The results obtained from the experiment are summarized as follows: (1) Optical micrographs of AISI 4140 steel plasma-nitrided by the double stage technique have revealed that the nitrided layer is composed of the compound layer and the diffusion layer. The variation in temperature at the first stage gives effects, on the formation of compound layer and the growth rate is shown to be relatively fast at $460^{\circ}C$. (2) The thickness of compound layer has been found to increase with increasing nitrogen percentage in the gas mixture and the holding time. It is therefore recommended that a shorter holding time and a lower nitrogen percentage are more effective to produce a tougher compound layer and a diffusion layer only. (3) X-ray diffraction analysis for AISI 4140 steel has shown that the compound layer consist of ${\gamma}^{\prime}-Fe_4N$ and ${\alpha}-Fe$ and that tough compound layer diffustion layer only can be obtained by the double stage plasmanitriding process. (4) There is also a tendency that the total hardened layer depth increases with increasing temperature, time and nitrogen percentage in the first stage during the double stage plasma nitriding. (5) The wear resistance of plasma nitrided specimens has been found thobe considerably increased compared to the untreated specimens and the amount of increment has appeared to increase further with increasing nitriding temperature, holding time and notrogen percentage of gas mixture in the first stage treatment.

• Journal of the korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.35-46
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• 1982

This paper deals with residual stress characteristics of ion-nitrided metal which is primarilly concerned with the effects of added carbon content in gas atmosphere. A small optimal amount of carbon content in gas atmosphere increase compound layer thickness, as well as to increase diffusion layer thickness and hardness. The residual stress and deflection of the specimens was measured in various elevated temperature at the surface of ion-nitrided metal and the internal stress distribution was calculated. It is found that compressive residual stress at the compound layer is largest at the compound layer, and decreases as the depth from the surface increases.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2001

Plasma nitrocarburising and post oxidation were performed on SM45C steel using a plasma nitriding unit. Nitrocarburising was carried out with various methane gas compositions with 4 torr gas pressure at $570^{\circ}C$ for 3 hours and post oxidation was carried out with 100% oxygen gas atmosphere with 4 torr at different temperatures for various times. It was found that the compound layer produced by plasma nitrocarburising consisted of predominantly ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}(N,C)$ and a small proportion of ${\gamma}-Fe_4(N,C)$. With increasing methane content in the gas mixture, ${\varepsilon}$ phase compound layer was favoured. In addition, when the methane content was further increased, cementite was observed in the compound layer. The very thin oxide layer on top of the compound layer was obtained by post oxidation. The formation of Oxide phase was initially started from the magnetite($Fe_3O_4$) and with increasing oxidation time, the oxide phase was increased. With increasing oxidation temperature, oxide phase was increased. However the oxide layer was split from the compound layer at high temperature. Corrosion resistance was slightly influenced by oxidation times and temperatures.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.49-57
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• 2024

We investigated the changes in microstructure and surface roughness of the compound layer of GC250D gray cast iron, commonly used in brake discs, during gas nitriding. The gas atmosphere of the nitriding process was controlled with a hydrogen partial pressure of 49.5%, and the process was conducted at a nitriding temperature of 520℃ with various process times. As the nitriding process time of the GC250D material increased, both the depth of hardening and the thickness of the compound layer increased, with a maximum surface hardness of approximately 1265 HV_0.1 was measured. Additionally, the surface roughness increased with the process time. Phase analysis of the compound layer revealed an increase in the proportion of the γ' phase as the nitriding process time increased. Changes in the formation of the compound layer were observed depending on the orientation of graphite within the material, leading to the formation of wedges. Therefore, the increase in surface roughness appears to be attributed to the uneven compounds, the expansion of the compound layer and wedges formed on the surface during the nitriding process.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 1983

This paper deals with hardness and wear characteristics of ion-nitrided metal, and with ion-nitride processing which is concerned with the effects of added carbon content in gas atmosphere. A small optimal amount of carbon content in gas atmosphere increase compound layer thickness, as well as to increase diffusion layer thickness and hardness, and reduces wear rate when the applied wear load is small. It is found in the analysis that under small applied wear load, the critical depth where voids and cracks may be created and propagated is located at the compound layer, so that the abrasive wear where hardness is an important factor, is created and the existence of compound layer reduces the amount of wear. When the load becomes large, the critical depth is located below nucleation and propagation, is created and the existence of compound layer increase wear rate.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.712-720
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• 1998

The effect of H2:N2 gas ratio on the case thickness hardness and nitrides formation in the sur-face of SCM440 machine structural steel have been studied by micro-pulse plasma process. The thickness of compound layer increased with the increase of nitrogen content in the gas com-position. The maximum thickness of compound layer the maximum case depth and the maximum surface hardness were about 15.8${\mu}m$, 400${\mu}m$ and Hv765 respectively in the nitriding condition of 250Pa and 70% nitrogen content at $520^{\circ}C$ for 7hrs. Generally only nitride phases such as ${\'{\gamma}}$($Fe_4N$)$\varepsilon(Fe_2}{_3N}$ phases were detected in compound and diffusion layer by XRD analysis. The amount of $\varepsilon(Fe_2}{_3N}$ phase increased with the increase of nitrogen content. The relative amounts and kind of phases formed in the nitrided case changed with the change of nitrogen content in the gas composition.