The wear and corrosion properties of stainless steel nitrided by low-pressure plasma-arc source ion nitriding at low temperatures

Low pressure plasma arc discharge-assisted nitriding of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel is a process that produces surface layers with useful properties such as a high surface hardness of approximately 1500 Hv_0.1 and a high resistance to frictional wear and corrosion. The phase composition, the thickness, the microstructure and the surface topography of the nitrided layer, as well as its properties, depend essentially on the process parameters. Among them, the processing temperature is the most important factor for forming a hard layer with good wear and corrosion resistance. Nitriding austenitic stainless steel at approximately 420°C for 70 min can produce a thin layer of 7–8 μm with very high hardness and good corrosion resistance on the surface. The microstructure was studied by optical microscopy and both glancing angle and conventional Bragg–Brentano (θ–2θ) symmetric geometry X-ray diffraction (XRD). The formation of expanded austenite was observed. Measurements of the wear depths indicated that the wear resistance of austenitic stainless steel can be improved greatly by nitriding at approximately 420°C using low-pressure plasma-arc source ion nitriding.