Tribological behavior of MP159 superalloys before and after plasma nitriding at different temperatures

MP159 superalloy is considered an ideal candidate for fasteners such as load-bearing bolts in aerospace equipment due to its excellent combination of strength, plasticity and corrosion resistance. As bolted joints, friction and wear due to relative movement between workpieces are unavoidable. The resulting loss of surface material can lead to loosening of bolt fasteners with disastrous consequences. Therefore, it is essential to improve the tribological properties of MP159 superalloy. However, there is a lack of studies on MP159 superalloy regarding tribological behavior and improvement of tribological properties. Therefore, in this work, plasma nitriding was performed on MP159 superalloys to improve the tribological properties, which in turn explored their tribological behavior at room temperature (20 ℃) and elevated temperature (600 ℃). The results were showed that plasma nitriding improved the resistance of MP159 superalloys to deformation, fatigue wear, delamination wear and adhesive wear due to the synergistic enhancement of hardness, H/E and H³/E². Meanwhile, the glaze layer formed at elevated temperature counteracted most of the hazards to tribological properties caused by the softening of the alloy and severe adhesive wear due to elevated temperature.