PRINCIPLES OF ALLOYING OF NICKEL-ALLOYS, HARDENABLE BY INTERNAL NITRIDING

Internal nitriding is a process of surface saturation with nitrogen, i n which there forms a diffusion layer, consisting of nitride particles that are uniformly distributed in a solid solution but without a surf ace zone of continuous nitrides, as in conventional nitriding. This is achieved by selection of the alloy chemical composition and the nitri ding process regimes. The presence of this diffusion layer opens up br oad possibilities for the hardening of various alloys, since a high le vel of brittleness of the layer is avoided. This is an advantage over conventional nitriding.