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EBSD and AFM observations of the microstructural changes induced by low temperature plasma carburising on AISI 316

journal contribution
posted on 2011-10-15, 00:00 authored by Santiago Corujeira GalloSantiago Corujeira Gallo, H Dong
Low temperature plasma carburising (LTPC) has been increasingly accepted as a hardening process for austenitic stainless steels because it produces a good combination of tribological and corrosion properties. The hardening mechanism is based on the supersaturation of the austenitic structure with carbon, which greatly hardens the material, significantly expands the fcc unit cell, produces high levels of compressive residual stresses and, ultimately, leads to the occurrence of deformation bands and rotation of the crystal lattice. The microstructural changes introduced during plasma carburising have a significant impact on the mechanical, tribological and corrosion performance and, for this reason, the microstructure of expanded austenite or S-phase has been extensively studied. However, modern surface characterisation techniques could provide new insights into the formation mechanism of S-phase layers. In this work, backscattered electron diffraction and atomic force microscopy were used to characterise the surface layers of expanded austenite produced by LTPC in an active screen furnace. Based on the experimental results, the plastic deformation, its dependence on crystallographic orientation, the evolution of grain boundaries, and their effects on mechanical, tribological and corrosion properties are discussed.

History

Journal

Applied surface science

Volume

258

Pagination

608-613

Location

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

ISSN

0169-4332

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article, C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2011, Elsevier

Issue

1

Publisher

Elsevier

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