Nitrogen Supersaturation of AISI316 Base Stainless Steels at 673 K and 623 K for Hardening and Microstructure Control

The high-density plasma nitriding at 673 K and 623 K was employed to make 10% of nitrogen supersaturation on AISI316 base austenitic stainless steels. The processing parameters and nitrogen-hydrogen gas flow ratio were optimized to increase the yield of N2+ ion and NH-radical for efficient nitriding. The nitrided AISI316 specimens were prepared for multidimensional analysis to describe the fundamental features of low-temperature plasma nitriding. First, macroscopic evaluation revealed that nitrogen supersaturation induced the γ-lattice expansion and the higher nitrogen content than 4% of mass in depth. The mesoscopic analysis describes the holding temperature and initial grain-size effects on the microstructure changes. Plastic straining, grain-size refinement, and nitrogen zone-boundary diffusion processes advance with nitrogen supersaturation to drive the inner nitriding behavior. The microscopic analysis explains the microstructure refinement, the two-phase structuring, and the microstructure modification. Through this multi-dimensional analysis, the essential characteristics of the low-temperature plasma nitriding of 316 austenitic stainless steels were precisely understood to extend the engineering treatise on the bulk nitrogen stainless steels for surface modification and treatment of stainless steels by nitriding. This plasma nitriding was applied to strengthen and harden the AISI316 wire surfaces toward its application on surgery wires.