Dry Sliding Wear Behavior of Austenitic Stainless Steel Material by Gas Nitriding Process

Abstract

In industries, components must operate under extreme conditions such as high load, speed, temperature and chemical environment. Materials are selected according to commercial availability, cost and their properties such as strength, hardness, etc. AISI 904L is a high-alloy stainless steel with low carbon content, poor surface hardness and wear characteristics. Many engineering failures are caused by fatigue, corrosion, and poor wear resistance, begins at the surface level. This causes cracks in the surface, reducing the material’s life. The surfaces of the materials were subjected to severe thermal, chemical, and shock loads. The selected AISI 904L materials for this work were subjected to gas nitriding process and processed with 3 different time parameters such as 12 hours, 18 hours and 24 hours respectively and named as GN1, GN2 and GN3. The treatments were done at a constant temperature of 650°C. Gas nitriding, in comparison to other nitriding processes such as plasma and liquid nitriding, provides good dimensional stability, reduced deformation, and uniform case depth regardless of the size and shape of the specimen. To analyze the wear properties, a pin on a disc machine is used. Finally, metallographic studies were performed by scanning electron microscopy.