Isothermal treatment of nitrided layers formed on steels

This work was aimed at investigating the formation of nitrided layers during the isothermal transformation (austempering) and at describing the formed nitrided layer properties. The tested steels were characterized by a different content of carbon and alloying elements. In the case of the isothermal transformation, 4 variants of heat treatment parameters of nitrided layers were applied. The heat treatment differed in the austenitizing temperature (750°C–860°C) and the isothermal transformation temperature (390°C- 420°C). The microstructure and the mechanical properties (hardness) of the nitrided layers formed after the heat treatment processes were determined. After the nitriding process, during 30 hours in the nitriding atmosphere consisting only of ammonia, the high nitrogen saturation in the surface zone of the layers was obtained. The nitrided layers, after the heat treatment processes, were char-acterized by the diversified thickness, as evidenced by the hardness distributions at their cross-sections.