C. Blawert et al., Influence of the material composition on the nitriding result of steels byplasma immersion ion implantation, SURF COAT, 131(1-3), 2000, pp. 334-339
The influence of different alloying elements and their concentration on the
nitriding behaviour of steel by plasma immersion ion implantation (PI3) wa
s examined. Treatments were performed at 300 degreesC using different high
voltage (HV) repetition rates of 100, 200 and 300 Hz. The steels were alloy
ed either with 0.09, 0.45 and 0.9 wt.% C, 0.11, 0.3 and 0.93 wt.% Al or 0.9
3, 3.6 and 13.2 wt.% Cr. The nitride formation for the various alloys and p
arameters was studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and metallographic cros
s-sections in scanning electron microscopy (SEM), showed a nitride formatio
n that is strongly influenced by the material composition. Additional infor
mation is obtained by glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOS) d
epth profiles and instrumented microhardness measurements. The effect of th
e HV repetition rate is not very clear, as on the one hand the implanted do
se is increased, but on the other nitride formation seemed to be disturbed
by higher repetition rates. The results will be discussed under the aspect
of improving the nitriding efficiency of PI3. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V
. All rights reserved.