Effect Of Plasma Nitration Process At Various Temperatures On Wear Behavior Of AISI 4340 Steel

Abstract

In this study, AISI 4340 (34CrNiMo6) tempered steel was applied to the plasma nitrationprocess at different temperatures and at different periods in order to increase the wear resistanceof the outer surface without decreasing the hardness of the core under 40-44 HRC, and toprevent the component from distortion during heat treatment. The sufficient core strength andtensile stress of some mechanical elements such as mold, drill, U-Drill are required not to fallbelow a certain value. There were five different temperatures (450, 475, 500, 530 and 550 0C)and two different time values (18 and 32 hours) used with these temperatures utilized in thestudy. The study tried to identify the optimum nitriding temperature and time for the limitvalues determined by considering the wear value after nitriding. The wear characteristics of thesamples in dry conditions were also investigated. It was observed that the ideal target values(core 40- 44 HRC) in the nitrided components were reached at 450 0C in 32 hours.