Effect of Aqueous Soluted Nitriding Process on AISI 304 Austenitic Stainless Steel under Dry Sliding Conditions

Abstract

AISI 304 stainless steel categorized under austenitic, has good resistance to corrosion and applicable for high resistance to pitting and stresses. But it has poor hardness, sterngth and resistance to wear. In order to overcome the above problem, various hardening techniques like nitriding, carburizing, carbonitriding, Cyaniding etc are preferred. In this work, aqueous soluted nitriding process is carried out to improve the surface hardness and wear resistance on AISI 304 specimens. Three specimens in cylindrical shape with a diameter of 10mm and length 35mm are treated with salt bath nitriding process for a time period of 45 minutes, 90 minutes, 120 minutes and named as SBN 1, SBN 2, SBN 3 respectively. One specimen is kept untreated to compare the results with treated specimens. After the heat treatment procedure is completed, pin on disc wear testing instrument was used to conduct a wear test at a constant speed and load. All the specimens were subjected to Scanning Electron Microscope test and the results were compared.

Keywords

• stainless steel
• surface hardness
• wear resistance
• wear test