• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.250-253
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• 2007

Plasma nitrocarburizing and plasma oxidizing treatments were performed to improve the wear and corrosion resistance of SKD 11 steel. Plasma nitrocarburizing was conducted for 12 h at $520^{\circ}C$ in the nitrogen, hydrogen and methane atmosphere to produce the $\varepsilon-Fe_{2-3}(N,C)$ phase. It was found that the compound layer produced by plasma nitrocarburising was predominantly composed of $\varepsilon-phase$, with a small proportion of $\gamma'-Fe_4(N,C)$ phase. The thickness of the compound layer was about $5{\mu}m$ and the diffusion layer was about $150{\mu}m$ in thickness, respectively. Plasma post oxidation was performed on the nitrocarburized samples with various oxygen/hydrogen ratio at constant temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour. The very thin magnetite($Fe_3O_4$) layer $1-2{\mu}m$ in thickness on top of the compound layer was obtained by plasma post oxidation. It was confirmed that the corrosion characteristics of the nitrocarburized compound layer could be further improved by the application of the superficial magnetite layer.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.681-686
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• 2006

Plasma nitrocarburising and plasma post oxidation were performed to improve the wear and corrosion resistance of S45C and SCM440 steel by a plasma ion nitriding system. Plasma nitrocarburizing was conducted for 3h at $570^{\circ}C$ in the nitrogen, hydrogen and methane atmosphere to produce the ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}$(N, C) phase. Plasma post oxidation was performed on the nitrocarburized samples with various oxygen/hydrogen ratio at constant temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour. The very thin magnetite ($Fe_3O_4$) layer $1-2{\mu}m$ in thickness on top of the $15{\sim}25{\mu}m$ ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}$(N, C) compound layer was obtained by plasma post oxidation. A salt spray test and electrochemical testing revealed that in the tested 5% NaCl solution, the corrosion characteristics of the nitrocarburized compound layer could be further improved by the application of the superficial magnetite layer. Throttle valve shafts were treated under optimum plasma processing conditions. Accelerated life time test results, using throttle body assembled with shaft treated by plasma nitrocarburising and post oxidation, showed that plasma nitrocarburizing and plasma post oxidation processes could be a viable technology in the very near future which can replace $Cr^{6+}$ plating.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.427-430
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• 2002

Plasma nitrocarburizing treatment was performed for SCM 435 steel by using a plasma ion nitriding system. The effects of the variation of nitrogen and methan contents upon the hardened layer was investigated. Both the thickness of the compound layer and the amount of $\varepsilon$ phase in the compound layer increased with increasing nitrogen content. However, the thickness of the compound layer decreased due to unstable plasma for an atmosphere containing 90% $N_2$ gas content in the gas mixture. The amount of $\varepsilon$phase in the compound layer increased with increasing $CH_4$ gas content. For $CH_4$ gas content more than 2% in the gas mixture, the thickness of the compound layer decreased due to the formation of $\theta$ phase.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2004

Nitrocarburizing was carried out with various $CH_4$ gas composition with 4 torr gas pressure at $570^{\circ}C$ for 3 hours and post oxidation was carried out with 100% $O_2$ gas atmosphere with 4 torr at different temperatures for various time. In the case of plasma nitrocarburizing, It is that the ratio of ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}$(N, C) and ${\gamma}^{\prime}-Fe_4$(C, N), which comprise the compound layer phase, depend on concentrations of $N_2$ gas and $CH_4$ such that when the concentration of $N_2$ and $CH_4$ increased, the ratio of ${\gamma}^{\prime}-Fe_4$(C, N) decreased, but the ratio of ${\varepsilon}-Fe_{2-3}$(N, C) increased. The thickness of compound layer consistently increased as gas concentration increased regardless of $N_2$ and $CH_4$ expect when the concentration of $CH_4$ was 3.5 volume%, it decreased insignificantly. When oxidizing for 15min in the temperature range of $460{\sim}570{^\circ}C$, the study found small amount of $Fe_3O_4$ at the temperature of $460{^\circ}C$ and also found that amounts of $Fe_2O_3$. and $Fe_3O_4$ on the surface and amount of ${\gamma}^{\prime}-Fe_4$(C, N) in the compound layer increased as the increased over $460^{\circ}C$, but the thickness of the compound layer decreased. Corrosion resistance was influenced by oxidation times and temperature.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.766-770
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• 2006

The frictional behavior of oxide films on top of the plasma nitrocarburized compound layers was investigated in terms of post-oxidation treatment temperatures. The post-oxidation treatment at both temperatures($400^{\circ}C,\;500^{\circ}C$) produced magnetite($Fe_3O_4$) films which led to a significant enhancement in corrosion resistance. However, this process did not result in any improvement in frictional behavior of the nitrocarburized surface. The wear mechanisms were governed predominantly by the abrasive action of the slider on the surface irrespective of the counterface material(SiC and Bearing steel). When the specimen was sliding against a SiC counterface, the oxide films were destroyed during the early stage of the sliding process and the wear debris of the oxide film at the sliding track had a great influence on the friction coefficient. On the other hand, when sliding against a bearing steel counterface, the slider was mainly worn out due to the much higher hardness of the surface hardened layer. The fluctuation of the friction coefficient of $400^{\circ}C$-oxidized/ nitrocarburized specimen is much severer than that of $500^{\circ}C$ specimen, due to the less amount of wear debris.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.166-173
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• 1999

Commercial carbon steels containing 0.2~0.55 wt.----C were plasma-nitrided or plasma nitrocarburized at $550^{\circ}C$ for 21.6Ks using $H_2-N_2$ or $H_2-N_2$-CO mixed gas respectively. The characteristics of hardening and wear-resistance of each treatment were studied and compared. And also microstructure of nitrided layer and nitrides formed in compound layer near surface were studied. All plasma-nitrided steels investigated showed remarkable increase of surface hardness with the increase of carbon content. But nitrocarburized steels resulted in higher surface-hardness than plasma-nitrided steels, which means that nitrocarburized has higher surface-hardening effect. Plasma-nitrided steels showed hardness increase in through-thickness direction near surface. And also nitrocarburized steels showed similar hardness distribution in through-thickness direction to that of plasma-nitrided steel. However, nitrocarburized steels had higher cross-sectional maximum-hardness than plasma-nitrided steels as much as 100Hv. Wear test showed that the amount of specific wear was reduced by both plasma-nitriding and nitrocarburized, showing that the amount of specific wear was not related to the hardness. But non-treated specimen showed that the amount of specific wear was related to the hardness.