초록
Nitriding treatments were conducted on tool steel (SKD 61) at a temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ for 5 hr using high vacuum direct current (DC) plasma, with ammonia and argon as source gases. The structural and compositional changes produced in the nitrided layers by applying different ratios of Ar to $NH_{3}\;(n_{Ar}/n_{NH3}) were investigated using glancing x-ray diffraction (GXRD), optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), micro-Vickers hardness testing, and pin-on-disc type tribometer. Nitriding case depths of around of $50{\mu}m$ were produced, varying slightly with different ratios of $n_{Ar}/n_{NH3}. It was found that the specimen surface hardness was 1150 Hv with $n_{Ar}/n_{NH3}=1, increasing to a maximum value of 1500 Hv with $n_{Ar}/n_{NH3}=5. With a further increase in ratio to $n_{Ar}/n_{NH3}=10, the surface hardness of the specimen reduced slightly to a value of 1370 Hv. These phenomena were caused by changes of the crystallographic structure of the nitride layers, i.e the $\gamma'-Fe_{4}N$ phase only was observed in the sample treated with $n_{Ar}/n_{NH3}$=1, and the intensity of the $\gamma'-Fe_{4}N$ phase were reduced but new phase of $\varepsilon'-Fe_{3}N$, which was known as a high hardness, with increasing $n_{Ar}/n_{NH3}. Also, the relative weight loss of counterface of the pin-on-disc with unnitrided steel was 0.2. And that of nitrided steel at a gas mixture ($n_{Ar}/n_{NH3}) of 1, 5, 7, and 10 was 0.4, 0.7, 0.6, and 0.5 mg, respectively. This means that the wear resistance of the nitrided samples could be increased by a factor of 2 at least than that of unnitrided steel.