New Process for Nitriding Steel Parts

There is proposed a new process for nitriding steel parts by the method of electrospark alloying (ESA), which includes applying a pasty nitrogen component onto the surface of the part and, without waiting for it to dry, performing the ESA process with an electrode-tool made of a material identical to the material of the workpiece being processed. In this case, the increase in the discharge energy of 0.13 to 3.4 J results in increasing, respectively: the thickness of the “white” layer of 10 to 50 microns; the microhardness of the surface layer of 6228 to 9160 MPa; the surface roughness (Ra) of 0.9 to 6.2 microns and the uniformity of the coating from 50 to 80%. The wear resistance of the surfaces for the specimens made of nitrided steel 20 and steel 40, in comparison with non-nitrided ones, increases, respectively, by 219 and 308%.