Boro-Nitriding of Steel US 37-1: N.E. Maragoudakis, G. Stergioudis, H. Omar, E. Pavlidou, D.N. Tsipas

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December 2002

Materials Letters 57 (2002) 949 – 952


www.elsevier.com/locate/matlet

Boro-nitriding of steel US 37-1


N.E. Maragoudakis a, G. Stergioudis b, H. Omar a, E. Pavlidou c, D.N. Tsipas a,*
a
Laboratory of Physical Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006-Thessaloniki, Greece
b
Applied Physics Laboratory, Physics Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006-Thessaloniki, Greece
c
Laboratory for Scanning Electron Microscope, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006-Thessaloniki, Greece

Received 4 May 2002; accepted 10 May 2002

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel duplex surface treatment carried out on steel US 37-1. The as-produced multi-layer coating
was characterised by optical microscopy, SEM, EDX and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and exhibited excellent adherence and
morphology. The resulting layers were mainly borides, nitrides and boronitrides.
D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Metals; Borides; Boronizing nitrides; Vapor deposition; X-ray diffraction

1. Introduction were pack cementation for boriding [5,6] and gas


nitriding. The phases that were formed were charac-
Boronizing is a thermochemical surface treatment, terized by XRD measurements, which were performed
in which Boron is diffused into the metal surface. using FeKa radiation.
Boronizing results in the formation of borides, which The resulting layers from this duplex treatment
improve the tribological behaviour of steel substrate were free of pores and cracks and showed excellent
[1]. adherence. This treatment could contribute to im-
Boronized steels have been also found to be ex- proved protection of steel metal surfaces [7,8].
tremely resistant in various erosive and corrosive
environments [2].
Nitriding is also a thermochemical treatment sim- 2. Experimental procedure
ilar to boriding offering to steel surfaces improved
wear and corrosion properties [3,4]. The coating treatments were carried out applying
In the present paper, borided steel was nitrided in the pack cementation method for boriding and gas
an attempt to form boron nitride coatings or duplex nitriding thermochemical method for nitriding. Cylin-
boride – nitride layers. The coating processes used drical specimens of 10 mm diameter were machined
from steel US 37-1 and were ground down to 500 grit
and placed into alumina retorts with the boronizing
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +30-31-996013; fax: +30-31-
agent.The boriding process was carried out at 1000 jC
996069. for 8 h. The boronized specimens were examined
E-mail address: tsipas@eng.auth.gr (D.N. Tsipas). using optical microscopy. X-ray diffraction (XRD)

0167-577X/02/$ - see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 7 - 5 7 7 X ( 0 2 ) 0 0 9 0 2 - 3
950 N.E. Maragoudakis et al. / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 949–952

was used to study the structure of the coated layer at


different depths. Some of the boronized specimens
were gas nitrided. The nitriding temperature was 500
jC and the duration was 18 h.
The gas nitriding [9] is done by ammonia dissoci-
ation according to the reaction:

NH3 X 1=2N2 þ 3=2H2

The process is called gas nitriding of single stage


and the degree of ammonia dissociation was between
20% and 30%.
The specimens were examined using optical micro-
Fig. 1. Boride layers formed on US 37-1 steel.
scopy, SEM, XRD and a Vickers microhardness tester.

3. Results and discussion

In Fig. 1, a typical morphology of a boride coating


obtained on steel US 37-1 is shown. This coating had
average thickness of 220 Am and it is characterised by
very good adherence due to its tooth-shape morphol-
ogy.
From X-ray patterns (Fig. 2a) it was concluded that
the as prepared coatings consist of a uniform com-
pound which was found to belong to Fe2B phase.
The XRD results for a boro-nitrided US 37-1 steel
are given in Fig. 2b.
In the first layer of 30 Am thickness, the ductile
phase Fe4N (white layer) [10,11] was mainly detected,

Fig. 2. (a) X-rays diffraction pattern of the boride coatings, where


the Fe2B phase is present. (b) XRD of boride coating subjected to
nitriding process. Only one reflection of Fe2B phase is present,
while Fe4N and BxNy peaks have clearly appeared. Some Fe2O3 was Fig. 3. Boro-nitriding of US 37-1 steel. Microhardness indentations
also present. are indicated.
N.E. Maragoudakis et al. / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 949–952 951

ing is about 220 Am. Microhardness (Hv) shows a


maximum value typical of Fe2B at a depth of 200 Am
(Fig. 4) and at smaller depths (60 –200 Am) values
corresponding to nitride layers were found. On the
outside a ductile Fe4N layer was formed (Hv = 280).
With the EDS analysis (Fig. 5), the presence of
oxide in the layers was detected. Fe2O3 phases are not
desirable and can be eliminated with better process
control. Argon introduction during thermochemical
treatments would reduce or even eliminate the for-
mation of Fe-oxides.
Fig. 4. Microhardness profiles of boro-nitrided samples of US 37-1
steel.
4. Conclusions
whereas in the second layer of 60 Am thickness, the
phases Fe4N, B25N were predominant, together with A novel boro-nitriding process was carried out on a
some Fe2O3. US 37-1 steel, leading mainly to the formation of
The overall adherence of these layers is excellent boride, nitride and boro-nitride layer. The layers were
(Fig. 3) and the thickness of the Boro-Nitriding coat- pore-free with excellent adherence.

Fig. 5. Dot-mapping of O, N and Fe in the nitrided area of a specimen.


952 N.E. Maragoudakis et al. / Materials Letters 57 (2002) 949–952

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