from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
The plasma nitriding is a process of thermo-chemical treatment using direct-current glow discharge to improve elemental content of nitrogen to the surface of steel for subsequent diffusion into the bulk of material. An ambient atmosphere was consisted of mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen; temperature should be between 480 and 560 °C. During the plasma nitriding process nitrogen diffuses to the bulk of material and creates nitrides of iron and alloy elements [1]. Properties of plasma nitriding layers are dependent not only on parameters of nitriding, such as duration, temperature, pressure, voltage and nitrogen potential, but it is also dependent on nitride-formed elements [2]. The temperature of ambient atmosphere and the duration of process have significant influence on the depth of nitrided layer (Nht thickness) [3]. Plasma nitriding process is suitable to use for surfacing of deep cavities with small diameter. This article deals with chemical composition and mechanical properties of plasma nitrided layers after chemical-heat treatment process in variously defined depths from surface to core of material. Also the redistribution of alloy elements in depth of nitrided layers was analysed on two different samples which were plasma nitrided by different duration and finally compared. The nitrided layers were applied to samples of DIN 1.7765 steel which were subsequently evaluated by metallographic, OES and microhardness methods. The results of measurement showed connection of chemical composition of alloying elements after chemical-heat treated process with hardness and microhardness. Analyse of nitrided layers in depth were performed in depths to 102 µm.
Keywords: Diffusion; chemical composition, alloying elements; nitride layer© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.