Low Temperature Treatments Specifically for Stainless Steels
Hardening of stainless steels has become one of the important needs in many areas of the industry. Increasing the hardness of austenitic stainless steels, which cannot be hardened by normal methods, is one of the requirements for extending their service life. In this context, increasing the surface hardness of stainless steels is one of the approaches used.
Plasma Nitriding is one of the methods used to improve the surface properties of stainless steels and make them more resistant to wear without reducing their corrosion resistance. Conventional nitriding processes can provide the desired surface hardness and wear resistance increase in stainless steels, but under some conditions, the surface hardness is increased while the stainless feature is weakened.
Low Temperature Plasma Nitriding is a surface treatment method that enables the successful nitriding of stainless steels, allows for flexible adjustment of process parameters, can be applied at low temperatures without weakening corrosion resistance, and even increases it under certain conditions, offering many other advantages.
Nitriding is an even more indispensable surface hardening process, especially for austenitic stainless steels that cannot be hardened by other heat treatment methods.
As a result of plasma nitriding processes carried out with i-nit® Pulse Plasma Nitriding Furnaces, the wear resistance of
- austenitic,
- ferritic,
- martensitic, and
- duplex stainless steels is
increased without causing a decrease in corrosion resistance.
With low-temperature plasma nitriding processes performed on these steels, the material surface can be enriched with nitrogen, creating S-phase structures (i.e., expanded austenite, expanded ferrite, or expanded martensite structures).
It is also possible to perform Low Temperature Plasma Carburizing and Nitrocarburizing processes. Depending on the type of steel used and the desired surface properties, extremely flexible and innovative surface properties (γN, γC, αC, αN, εN, εC) can be developed.
The Plasma Nitriding method also allows the use of an unlimited number of gas compositions during the process. The gas composition used determines the structure of the nitride or S phase (supersaturated or expanded austenite) layer formed on the surface and leaves its mark on the surface properties of the final product.
Depending on where the stainless steel is used and what properties are expected, the Plasma Nitriding process conditions are determined and applied to achieve optimum surface hardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance for parts made from materials such as 304, 316L, 420, 430, and 1.4462.