The Effect of Pre-Heat Treatment Parameters on the Ion Nitriding of Tool Steel

금형공구강의 이온질화에 미치는 이전열처리 조건의 영향

The effects of pre-heat treatment(Q/T) on microstructure and hardness of STD11 and STD61 tool steel nitrided by micro-pulse plasma were investigated. The quenching temperature for obtaining matrix hardness of STD11 and STD61 steel on range of HRC 50 to HRC 60 desired for machine parts is about $1070^{\circ}C$ and $1020^{\circ}C$ respectively. The hardness of STD11 and STD61 quenched at the temperature was HRC 63 and HRC 56 respectively. The nitrided case depth of STD11 and STD61 nitrided at $550^{\circ}C$ for 5 hours was independent of pre-heat treatment condition and the depth was approximately $100{\mu}m$. However, hardness and compactness of nitrided layer on Q/T treated specimen were higher than the annealed specimen. The case depth increased linearly with the increase of nitriding temperature, however, the hardness of nitrided layer decreased with the increase of temperature. Phase mixture of ${\gamma}-Fe_4N$ and ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}N$ was detected by XRD analysis in the nitrided layer formed at the optimum nitriding condition. The optimum nitriding temperature was approximately $490^{\circ}C$ which was $10^{\circ}C$ lower than the tempering temperature for preventing softening behavior of STD11 and STD61 matrix during nitriding process and the surface hardness of nitrided layer obtained by optimum pre-heat treatment condition was about Hv1400.