Improving the scratch test properties of plasma-nitrided stainless austenitic steel by preliminary nanostructuring frictional treatment

Abstract

The paper studies the effect of nanostructuring deformation surface processing - frictional treatment performed prior to the operation of nitriding in electron beam plasma - on the quality of the surface and tribological properties of the nitrided layer of the AISI 321 chromium-nickel austenitic steel. For the surface layers nitrided in the undeformed coarse-crystalline and nanostructured states, considerable differences in the critical loads and the fracture patterns under scratch testing are observed, despite practically the same microhardness of the nitrided surfaces under study. It is demonstrated that preliminary frictional treatment increases the rupture strength of the nitrided layer under scratch testing and stabilizes the tribological properties of the surface on the macroscopic scale. © 2018 Author(s).