• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.5-12
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• 1990

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.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.707-713
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• 1998

The influence of plasma carburizing process on the surface hardness of SCM415 low-alloy steel (0.15% C) was investigated under the various process conditions of gas composition. gas pressure, plasma current density. temperature and time. The effective case depth was found to depend on the amount of methan gas containing carbon. thus the deepest case depth and the uniform hardeness were obtained with the 100% methan gas. The case depth increased with the plasma current density. The effective plasma carburizing temperature of SCM415 steel was found to be higher than 85$0^{\circ}C$, and the case depth was proportional to the square root of carburizing time under the same current density. The bending fatigue strength of the plasma carburized specimen is' higher than those of as- received specimen or reheat-quenched specimen.

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