Abstract
A systematic investigation was made on the influence of processing parameters such as gas composition and treatment temperature on the surface characteristics of hardened layers of low temperature plasma nitrided 316L Austenitic Stainless Steel. Various nitriding processes were conducted by changing temperature ($370^{\circ}C$ to $430^{\circ}C$) and changing $N_2$ percentage (10% to 25%) for 15 hours in the glow discharge environment of a gas mixture of $N_2$ and $H_2$ in a plasma nitriding system. In this process a constant pressure of 4 Torr was maintained. Increasing nitriding temperature from $370^{\circ}C$ to $430^{\circ}C$, increases the thickness of S phase layer and the surface hardness, and also makes an improvement in corrosion resistance, irrespective of nitrogen percent. On the other hand, increasing nitrogen percent from 10% to 25% at $430^{\circ}C$ decreases corrosion resistance although it increases the surface hardness and the thickness of S phase layer. Therefore, optimized condition was selected as nitriding temperature of $430^{\circ}C$ with 10% nitrogen, as at this condition, the treated sample showed better corrosion resistance. Moreover to further increase the thickness of S phase layer and surface hardness without compromising the corrosion behavior, further research was conducted by fixing the $N_2$ content at 10% with introducing various amount of $CH_4$ content from 0% to 5% in the nitriding atmosphere. The best treatment condition was determined as 10% $N_2$ and 5% $CH_4$ content at $430^{\circ}C$, where the thickness of S phase layer of about $17{\mu}m$ and a surface hardness of $980HV_{0.1}$ were obtained (before treatment $250HV_{0.1}$ hardness). This specimen also showed much higher pitting potential, i.e. better corrosion resistance, than specimens treated at different process conditions and the untreated one.
