Improvement of the wear behaviour of highly-loaded components and tools by multi-combined surface treatment

• Main Authors: Gundis Grumbt, Zenker Rolf, Heinz-Joachim Spies, Rainer Franke, Ingrid Haase
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Univerzity of Zilina. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering 2014-01-01
• Series: Materiálové Inžinierstvo
• Subjects: Combined surface treatment; Electron beam hardening; plasma nitriding; physical vapour deposition; tool steel
• Online Access: http://ojs.mateng.sk/index.php/Mateng/article/view/96

<p><em>This paper introduces a novel multi-combined surface treatment consisting of the individual treatments of plasma nitriding (PN), physical vapour deposition (PVD) and electron beam hardening (EBH). Using graded surface layers produced by such a combined surface treatment, it is possible to withstand the complex load conditions incurred by components and tools.</em><em></em></p> <p><em>It is shown, that the treatment sequences PN+EBH+PVD and EBH+PN+PVD are suitable for improving material properties.</em><em></em></p> <p><em>These multi-combined surface treatments lead to a significant improvement in load-supporting capacity. Critical load values of cohesive failure measured by scratch tests are tripled when compared to the individual treatment of PVD, and increased by at least 20% in comparison to the duplex treatments of EBH+PVD or PN+PVD.</em><em></em></p> <p><em>The metallurgical compatibility of the single treatments is essential for the success of combined treatments. Material-specific limitations are defined, which exclude failure due to crack initiation, the occurrence of retained austenite, and tempering effects.</em><em></em></p> <em>Based on the model wear-test assembly block-on-cylinder, it was proved, that the specific wear rate of multi-combined treated specimens is reduced about 20-50% while wear of counterpart components is decreased as well. The triplex surface heat treatment introduced opens up new prospects for highly-loaded components and tools.</em>