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Influence of Microstructure and Process Conditions on Simultaneous Low-Temperature Surface Hardening and Bulk Precipitation Hardening of Nanoflex®

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Abstract

Precipitation hardening martensitic stainless steel Nanoflex was low-temperature nitrided or nitrocarburized. In these treatments, simultaneous hardening of the bulk, by precipitation hardening, and the surface by dissolving nitrogen/carbon can be obtained because the treatment temperatures and times for these essentially different hardening mechanisms are compatible. The effect of the processing history of the steel on the nitrided/nitrocarburized case was investigated by varying the amounts of austenite and martensite through variation of the degree of plastic deformation by tensile strain, deep cooling, and deliberate manipulation of the austenite stability. The nitrided/nitrocarburized case was investigated with reflected light microscopy, hardness-depth profiling, X-ray diffraction analysis, and glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that a microstructure consisting of martensite results in the deepest nitrided case, while a shallow case develops on a microstructure consisting of austenite. For an initial microstructure consisting of both martensite and austenite a non-uniform case depth is achieved. Simultaneous bulk and surface hardening is only possible for martensite because the precipitation hardening does not occur in an austenite matrix.

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Notes

  1. Nanoflex is a registered trademark of Sandvik Materials Technology.

  2. The amount of isothermal martensite that develops in 1 hour is about 20 pct, while 10 hours is needed to reach 50 pct isothermal transformation.

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Acknowledgments

For the present research work, the authors gratefully acknowledge the Research Fund for Coal and Steel for the financial support to the PressPerfect project. Furthermore, the authors would like to thank Sandvik Materials Technology for providing the materials used in the experimental activity. Dr. Kristian Vinter Dahl is acknowledged for the ThermoCalc simulations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Produktionstorvet b.425, 2800 Kgs, Lyngby, Denmark

    Federico Bottoli (Ph.D. Student), Grethe Winther (Associate Professor), Thomas L. Christiansen (Senior Researcher) & Marcel A. J. Somers (Section Head, Professor)

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  1. Federico Bottoli
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  2. Grethe Winther
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  3. Thomas L. Christiansen
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  4. Marcel A. J. Somers
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Correspondence to Marcel A. J. Somers.

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Manuscript submitted February 24, 2015.

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Bottoli, F., Winther, G., Christiansen, T.L. et al. Influence of Microstructure and Process Conditions on Simultaneous Low-Temperature Surface Hardening and Bulk Precipitation Hardening of Nanoflex® . Metall Mater Trans A 46, 5201–5216 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-015-3088-9

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