Manufacturing Technology 2023, 23(6):909-916 | DOI: 10.21062/mft.2023.087

Effect of Plasma Nitriding and Sensitization on the Microstructure and Microhardness of AISI 304 Austenitic Steel

Martin Slezák ORCID..., Milan Uhríčik ORCID..., Peter Palček ORCID..., Veronika Chvalníková ORCID..., Petra Drímalová ORCID..., Lukáš Šikyňa ORCID...
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Materials Engineering, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 8215/1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia

This article deals with the influence of plasma nitriding and sensitization on the microstructure and microhardness of AISI 304 austenitic steel. The microstructure of AISI 304 austenitic steel in all states was observed on a Neophot 32 optical microscope. The initial structure consisted of polyhedral austenite grains of different sizes. The microstructure contained a large number of non-metallic MnS-based inclu-sions. After plasma nitriding, a continuous nitriding layer was formed under the steel surface, while the grain shape was preserved. After the processes of sensitization and plasma nitriding followed by sensiti-zation, carbides were excluded along the austenitic grain boundaries were excluded. The nitriding layer began to deteriorate due to temperature and length of sensitization. Vickers microhardness measure-ment on a Zwick/Roell ZHμ machine proved that the nitriding layer is reaching the high hardnesses compared to the core of samples. After sensitization, the nitrided samples achieved only slightly in-creased microhardness compared to the core. Finally, EDX analysis of the nitriding layer was performed on the SEM and compared with the layer that was affected by the sensitization process.

Keywords: Austenitic stainless steel, Plasma nitriding, Sensitization, Microstructure, Microhardness
Grants and funding:

The research was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences, VEGA 01/0134/20, KEGA 004ŽU-4/2023, KEGA 016ŽU-4/2023, project APVV-20-0427 and project to support young researchers at UNIZA, the ID of project 12715
The research was supported by Rϋbig SK, where plasma nitriding of AISI 304 austenitic steel samples was carried out

Received: August 25, 2023; Revised: November 5, 2023; Accepted: November 13, 2023; Prepublished online: November 27, 2023; Published: December 22, 2023  Show citation

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Slezák M, Uhríčik M, Palček P, Chvalníková V, Drímalová P, Šikyňa L. Effect of Plasma Nitriding and Sensitization on the Microstructure and Microhardness of AISI 304 Austenitic Steel. Manufacturing Technology. 2023;23(6):909-916. doi: 10.21062/mft.2023.087.
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