Modern Metals India: One stop destination for metallurgical consulting

By OEM Update Editorial October 8, 2018 2:25 pm IST

Modern Metals India specialises in providing heat treatment services and applies technical expertise in helping manufacturers reduce costs through metallurgical consulting and heat treatment outsourcing services, especially through surface treatment services called nitriding process.

Nitrided steels are generally medium-carbon (quench and tempered) steels that contain strong nitride-forming elements such as aluminium, chromium, vanadium and molybdenum. Aluminium is the strongest nitride former of the common alloying elements.

These elements are beneficial in nitriding because they form nitrides that are stable at nitriding temperatures. Molybdenum, in addition, contributes as a nitride former, also reduces the risk of embrittlement at nitriding temperatures. Other alloying elements such as nickel, copper and silicon have little effect on nitriding characteristics.

Although, at suitable temperatures, all steels are capable of forming iron nitrides in the presence of nascent nitrogen. The nitriding results are more favourable in those steels that contain one or more of the major nitride-forming alloying elements.

Principal reasons for nitriding are:
• To obtain high surface hardness
•To improve fatigue life
• To obtain a surface that is resistant to the softening effect of heat at temperatures up to the nitriding temperature
• To increase wear resistance
• To improve corrosion resistance
• Good surface finish
• Negligible shape distortion