Sliding wear characteristics of nitrided steels

ISSN： 1743-2944

Source： Surface Engineering, Vol.10, Iss.1, 1994-01, pp. : 65-74

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Abstract

The sliding wear behaviour of gas nitrided, plasma nitrided, and ferritic gas nitrocarburised BS 970, 905M39 (EN 41B) steels was investigated using a pin on disc machine. Commercial nitriding processes were employed and the nitrided specimens were characterised by metallurgical examination. A sharp wear rate transition between mild (oxidative) and severe (metallie) regimes was identified for both untreated and nitrided steels. Nitriding not only increased the transition load, but also reduced the wear rate in both wear regimes. There was no significant difference between the nitrided steels in terms of transition load and wear rate. However, the wear lives of the nitrided layers were dependent on their case depth. A thick and porous compound layer produced by gas nitriding showed poor wear behaviour owing to its brittleness, while a thin nitrocarburised e-Fe3N compound layer exhibited a low wear rate.