Surface Evolution During Low Temperature Plasma Assisted Nitriding of Austenitic Stainless Steel

Plasma-assisted nitriding is an attractive surface treatment for metallurgical surface modification to improve wear, hardness and fatigue resistance of austenitic stainless steels. However, this technique requires low temperature processing in order to avoid chromium nitride precipitation and hence the degradation of corrosion properties. This paper presents a low temperature high rate plasma nitriding process and will emphasis on the consequences of nitrogen incorporation on the metallographic and crystallographic properties of the sample surface.