CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ARC XENON LAMP AND ITS APPLICATION TO TITANIUMNITRIDE SYNTHESIS

Concentrated solar energy offers unknown possibilities on surface modi fication of materials. The characterisation of 7 kW are xenon lamp is presented as a solar simulator. The lamp has a maximum net power densi ty of about 220 Wcm(-2) with a spot of 8 mm diameter. With this equipm ent it is possible to treat steels and even melt of materials up to 20 00K. Results are presented for the surface nitriding of Ti alloys perf ormed in a nitrogen reaction chamber at atmospheric pressure. The good quality of the TiN coating is demonstrated by scanning electron micro scopy, X-ray diffraction and Vickers hardeness (hardness about 1000 HV ). Treating times could be as short as 30 s because the growth rate is about 4 mu m/min. This rate is higher than many other nitriding proce sses. These results are a previous experimental work to direct nitridi ng of Ti alloys in real solar concentrating equipment.