AISI 1005 Steel Plasma Treated by Different Thermochemical Surface Treatments

Abstract To modify the surface structure of AISI 1005 steel and its properties without any dimensional loss, different plasma surface treatments were performed at low temperatures (500 ºC) in this study. The samples were subjected to single plasma treatments including: nitriding (N5% and N3%), carburizing (CE) and ferritic nitrocarburizing (NC) and to duplex treatments of nitriding followed by carburizing (N5%+CE and N3%+CE) and ferritic nitrocarburizing followed by carburizing (NC+CE). The gas mixture used for these treatments was varied as follows: nitriding (5%N2+95%H2 and 3%N2+97%H2), carburizing (5%CH4+95%H2) and ferritic nitrocarburizing (5%N2+1.5%CH4+93.5%H2). A microstructural characterization of the samples was carried out using optical and scanning electron microscopy in addition to XRD analysis. Microhardness testing was also performed. The XRD analysis showed a stabilization of the outermost cementite layer for all of the carburizing treatments. The results show that a greater hardness increase was achieved for the nitriding treatment as well as a more regular compound layer. However, a greater depth of hardening was obtained in samples with NC+CE and N5%+CE, which extended to the hardened depth to 800 µm.