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    Solid carbon active screen plasma nitrocarburizing of AISI 316L stainless steel in cold wall reactor: influence of plasma conditions
    (Rio de Janeiro : Elsevier, 2020) Jafarpour, Saeed M.; Puth, Alexander; Dalke, Anke; Böcker, Jan; Pipa, AndreiV.; Röpcke, Jürgen; van Helden, Jean-Pierre H.; Biermann, Horst
    Low temperature plasma nitrocarburizing processes are widely used surface treatment techniques to improve the surface hardness and wear resistance of stainless steels without loss of their excellent corrosion resistance. In the present study, plasma nitrocarburizing based on the active screen technology was applied in an industrial-scale cold wall reactor for the treatment of AISI 316L. Different technological aspects of a cold wall active screen plasma nitrocarburizing (ASPNC) reactor are addressed. The current study compiles recent achievements for the ASPNC treatment using an active screen made of carbon fibre-reinforced carbon under varying plasma conditions. In addition, it is shown that utilizing an active screen made of carbon opens up the possibility to control the structural properties of expanded austenite by the variation of the plasma conditions. It is revealed that for the ASPNC treatment using an active carbon screen, the high reactivity of the generated plasma at the carbon surface suppresses the requirement to apply a bias discharge.
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    Influence of the active screen plasma power during afterglow nitrocarburizing on the surface modification of aisi 316l
    (Basel : MDPI, 2020) Böcker, Jan; Puth, Alexander; Dalke, Anke; Röpcke, Jürgen; Van Helden, Jean-Pierre H.; Biermann, Horst
    Active screen plasma nitrocarburizing (ASPNC) increases the surface hardness and lifetime of austenitic stainless steel without deteriorating its corrosion resistance. Using an active screen made of carbon opens up new technological possibilities that have not been exploited to date. In this study, the effect of screen power variation without bias application on resulting concentrations of process gas species and surface modification of AISI 316L steel was studied. The concentrations of gas species (e.g., HCN, NH3, CH4, C2 H2) were measured as functions of the active screen power and the feed gas composition at constant temperature using in situ infrared laser absorption spectroscopy. At constant precursor gas composition, the decrease in active screen power led to a decrease in both the concentrations of the detected molecules and the diffusion depths of nitrogen and carbon. Depending on the gas mixture, a threshold of the active screen power was found above which no changes in the expanded austenite layer thickness were measured. The use of a heating independent of the screen power offers an additional parameter for optimizing the ASPNC process in addition to changes in the feed gas composition and the bias power. In this way, an advanced process control can be established. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.